Nope - he remained a Democrat - that's one of the reasons why he was despised by the radical Republicans
His to his penurious situation,after he left the presidency, it was due to his stupidity ( failed investment firm,with a crooked partner!)and not to his "honesty".
Give me an example (besides gifts) which shows personal dishonesty.
You're spinning,re the immigration thing. The Chinese immigrants took jobs,at much lower pay, than American natives would.any businesses,at that time, fired their native American workers and replaced them with the Chinese.It was almost outsourcing;not really all that removed (and it was actually worse!)from hiring H1B workers!
It was actually racism which caused the various Chinese exclusion acts to be enacted. There weren't moves to restrict immigration from Europe until much later. In 1876 the United States was still expanding and immigrants were needed in many areas of the west.
The 1870s were dreary years in America,and 1876 was one of the worst,during that decade of depressions,PANICS,and monetary catastrophes.
The panic of 1873 was a European economic failure which spread to the United States. The main cause was the overbuilding of and speculation in railroads - similar to the dot com mania and crash. Things were bad all over - not just in the United States.
The Radical Republicans,at first liked Johnson, after Lincoln's assassination, but only turned on him, when while Congress was not in session,he implemented much of Lincoln's lenient policies for the South.They wanted blood,errrrrr...revenge,which is NOT what Johnson gave the Southern states.The Radical Republicans also HATED President Grant,BTW.
Now while many PANICS and even Depressions have been world wide,the Panic of 1873 made a complete circle,if you will. It started in Austria,then hit Germany,spread over Europe, jumped the Atlantic, but when it hit America, it then jumped back across the Atlantic and re-hit Europe.So, in a way,we caught that "cold",made it worse,and then sent it back.But,by 1870, without any the European induced Panic,America was beginning to suffer from monetary problems.The Chicago real estate BUBBLE of 1870 and it's bursting, predates the European Panic of 1873!Once that Panic jumped over the ocean and landed here, we were already in a whole lot of hurt.And, don't ignore my reference to the army of bums! This menace started just after the Civil War ended and grew and grew and GREW,as times got bad,then worse,then horrific!
Yes,there was racism, in regard to the Chinese immigrants,but what has that got to do with what I posted? In 1878, the Congress drew up a Bill, which Hays vetoed,to exclude ALL immigration from China and it had NOTHING to do with what we were discussing! And the Chinese immigrants, didn't just work laying track for the the railroads, though many of them did.After all, the Chinese immigrants didn't just wind up on the West Coast,many of them went to N.Y. and other cities as well.
And as long as we're talking about racism, the Irish were looked at as a different races, when they came here, which makes no sense at all to me, but it's a historical fact!
Now, back to Grant. You CCPed what I posted and then went completely off on quite a different tact, implying that it had something or other to do with what I posted. Now, why is that? Could it possibly be because the facts are in conflict with what you implied earlier?
Look, the fact is that Grant lost his money and the money he had borrowed, because he went into the investment business,after he left the presidency,with a crook and the business went belly up about 7 years later.I didn't say that he wound up penurious, because he was dishonest.Was he personally responsible for that firm going into bankruptcy? No, he was a silent partner.But YOU implied that he almost died in penury, because he was oh so honest...which is NOT the case at all!
Did he accept lavish, expensive gifts, while he was president? Yes, he certainly did. Did he also hang around with Gould and Fisk? Yep, he did. Were Fisk and Gould " working him", because they wanted to corner the gold market? You betcha! Did he finally scupper their plans? Yes, he did and I already told you that, which I doubt you knew. :-)
Grant was a lousy judge of character.He was NOT some "perfect" man/president/Conservative.