Now I dispute that reading of General Grant. He was not qualified to be president, but he was a good man and worthy of admiration.
He had more "mercy" than Sherman and his terms of surrender for Lee were admirable, that's about it. He was elected president because half of the country was not allowed to vote. I've read the Constitution many times and I fail to see how it is that sovereign states which VOLUNTARILY entered into the Union somehow forfeited their sovereign right to secede from that Union.