Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses Grant

Republican Party

Education

Other

United States Military Academy West Point

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Army

Years of service

1843 - 1869

Personal

Profession

Politician

Ulysses S. Grant (b. Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio) was the 18th president of the United States. He served from 1869 to 1877 and died at age 63 on July 23, 1885.

Grant was a member of the Republican Party. His vice presidents were Schuyler Colfax (1869-1873) and Henry Wilson (1873-1877).

Grant was president during the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War.

Prior to his presidency, Grant served in the Civil War as colonel and brigadier general of the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, major general of volunteers, lieutenant general of Union armies, and general-in-chief of the United States Army. He led the Union to ultimately defeat the Confederate States Army in 1865.

Biography

Timeline of life events

Below is an abbreviated outline of Grant's professional and political career:

• 1822: Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio
• 1843: Graduated from United States Military Academy, West Point; assigned to the Fourth Infantry of the U.S. Army
• 1846-1848: Served in the Mexican-American War
• 1861-1865: Served in the American Civil War
• 1865: Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House
• 1866: Appointed general-in-chief of the United States Army
• 1868: Elected president of the United States, defeating Democrat Horatio Seymour
• 1869: Grant's brother-in-law Abel Corbin implicated in Black Friday financial panic
• 1870: Signed the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
• 1872: Signed legislation to establish Yellowstone as the country's first national park
• 1872: Re-elected as president of the United States
• 1875: Signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875
• 1875: Grant’s secretary Orville Babcock indicted in Whiskey Ring scandal
• 1880: Lost Republican presidential candidate nomination to James Garfield
• 1885: Died of throat cancer in Mount McGregor, New York

Before the presidency

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born to Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simpson Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822. He grew up in Georgetown, Ohio, where his father ran a tannery. In 1839, Grant entered the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. An error was made during the admissions process in which Grant's name was incorrectly rendered as Ulysses S. Grant, a rendering which Grant accepted as his legal name. Following graduation in 1843, Grant was assigned to the Fourth Infantry of the United States Army, stationed in St. Louis, Missouri. He served in the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848, then returned to St. Louis to marry Julia Boggs Dent.

Grant resigned from the army in 1854 but returned at the start of the American Civil War in 1861. He served in the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to serve as lieutenant general of the Union armies in 1864. He then served as the general-in-chief of the United States Army from 1864 to 1869. Grant led the Union to defeat the Confederate States Army through an aggressive military strategy, resulting in the end of the Civil War and the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

On May 24, 1868, the Republican Party nominated Grant as the party's presidential candidate, and he ran with the slogan "Let Us Have Peace." He defeated Democratic candidate Horatio Seymour in the presidential election on November 3, 1868, receiving 214 electoral votes to Seymour's 80.

Presidency

Grant served as president during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. In his first term as president, the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, granting black males the right to vote. Grant also signed the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which were designed to protect black citizens from the violation of their voting rights and associated violence. Grant also signed legislation to establish the National Weather Service and Yellowstone National Park.

On November 5, 1872, Grant won the popular vote in his second presidential election, defeating Democratic candidate Horace Greeley. Greeley died before the Electoral College cast its votes. Grant received 286 electoral votes, while the remaining votes went to four Democratic candidates.

During his second term as president, Grant signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, designed to provide all citizens with equal access to public accommodations. That year, he also signed the Resumption Act to return the country to the gold standard.

The Grant presidency was also marked by a series of government scandals and negative public reactions. Grant's brother-in-law was involved in the Black Friday financial crisis of 1869, during which speculators Jay Gould and James Fisk manipulated the New York Gold Exchange market. It was revealed in 1872 that government officials, including Vice President Schuyler Colfax, were implicated in the Crédit Mobilier Scandal that took place during the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. Grant’s secretary, Orville Babcock, was indicted and later acquitted for involvement in the Whiskey Ring scandal of 1876, in which whiskey distributors and distillers bribed government officials in order to evade liquor taxes. The public also responded negatively to government salary increase legislation in 1873. In addition to increasing the salaries of the president and Supreme Court justices, the legislation included retroactive pay increases for Congress members that were later rescinded.

Post-presidency

After the presidency, Grant and his wife Julia spent two years traveling around the world before settling in New York City in 1880. In 1884, Grant was bankrupted after investing in Ferdinand Ward's Ponzi scheme. He then focused on writing his memoirs while facing the diagnosis of throat cancer. Grant died in Mount McGregor, New York, in July 1885, just after finishing his memoirs.

Personal

Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
In school, Grant was known as an average student and a skilled equestrian. He and his wife Julia had four children—Frederick, Ulysses Jr., Ellen, and Jesse. Grant's memoirs were published shortly after his death in 1885 by Mark Twain.

The answer to the riddle "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" is "No one"—Ulysses and Julia Grant were entombed in sarcophagi in the New York City tomb.

Elections

Grant defeated Seymour in the presidential election of 1868, receiving 214 electoral votes to Seymour's 80.

U.S. presidential election, 1868
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ulysses S. Grant/Schuyler Colfax	52.7%	3,013,790	214
	Democratic	Horatio Seymour/Francis Blair Jr.	47.3%	2,708,980	80
Total Votes				5,722,770	294
Election results via: 1868 official election results

Grant defeated Greeley in the presidential election of 1872, receiving 286 electoral votes. Greeley died before the electoral votes were cast, and his electoral votes were distributed among four other Democratic candidates.

U.S. presidential election, 1872
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ulysses S. Grant/Henry Wilson Incumbent	55.9%	3,597,132	286
	Democratic	Horace Greeley/B. Gratz Brown	44.1%	2,834,125	0
Total Votes				6,431,257	286
Election results via: 1868 official election results

State of the Union addresses

Every year in office, the president of the United States addresses Congress on the present state of affairs as well as the administration's goals for the coming year. Following are transcripts from Grant's State of the Union addresses:

• December 6, 1869
• December 5, 1870
• December 4, 1871
• December 2, 1872
• December 1, 1873
• December 7, 1874
• December 7, 1875
• December 5, 1876

See also

Andrew Jackson
Rutherford B. Hayes
Federal judges nominated by Ulysses Grant

External links

• Official White House biography
• C-Span video on the Grant presidency

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Andrew Jackson (Democratic-Republican)	President of the United States 1869-1877	Succeeded by Rutherford B. Hayes (R)