Posted on 07/24/2015 2:30:32 PM PDT by the scotsman
'After Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died 130 years ago today, a million and a half Americans watched his funeral procession. His mausoleum was a popular tourist attraction in New York City for decades. But for most of the 20th Century, historians and non-historians alike believed Grant was corrupt, drunken and incompetent, that he was one of the country's worst presidents, and that as a general, he was more lucky than good.
A generation of historians, led by Columbia's William A. Dunning, criticized Grant for backing Reconstruction, the federal government's attempt to protect the rights of black southerners in the 1860s and early 1870s. Black people, some Dunning school historians suggested, were unsuited for education, the vote, or holding office. Grant's critics were "determined the Civil War would be interpreted from the point of view of the Confederacy," said John F. Marszalek, a historian and executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association. "The idea that Grant would do things that would ensure citizenship rights for blacks was just awful and so he had to be knocked down."
Grant's "presidency was basically seen as corrupt, and it took place during Reconstruction, which was seen as basically the lowest point of American history," said Eric Foner, a civil war historian at Columbia University. "Whatever Grant did to protect former slaves was naïveté or worse."
In recent decades, that's all changed. The Grant you learned about in school isn't the one your kids will read about in their textbooks. And that's because historians are in the midst of a broad reassessment of Grant's legacy. In just nine years, between 2000 and 2009, Grant jumped 10 spots in a C-SPAN survey of historians' presidential rankings, from 33rd to 23rd -- a bigger jump than any other president.'
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
The Yankees didn’t have balls to hang any Confederate.
Thanks for mentioning it. I must make a pilgrimage.
If this had taken place in any other country other than America, The Southerners as the Vanquished, would have been subject to horrific Punishments.
Think about what happens if you were on the Losing Side of an African Bush War, The Japanese Shogun Wars in the late 1800's.
Horrible things.
But not here, Not in America. We needed to the United States Again.
In the War there were Heroes, Smugglers, Traitors and Rebels and everything in between.
A Good Act does not Wash out the Bad, Or the Bad Act the Good.
But Cleaner ways don't win wars.
No need to say it it was pretty clear. Why don't you go over to Memphis I hear they need a few more grave robbers. Maybe you could run around with Forrests skull like a sadistic voodoo witch doctor.
Damn Android!
I say these things NOT because I hate the Confederates.
Well, that ruins the point I was trying to make.
Let's try this.
I say these things NOT because I hate the Confederates.
If this had taken place in any other country other than America, The Southerners as the Vanquished, would have been subject to horrific Punishments.
Think about what happens if you were on the Losing Side of an African Bush War, The Japanese Shogun Wars in the late 1800's.
Horrible things.
But not here, Not in America. We needed to the United States Again.
In the War there were Heroes, Smugglers, Traitors and Rebels and everything in between.
A Good Act does not Wash out the Bad, Or the Bad Act the Good.
But Cleaner ways don't win wars.
I think reconstruction would have been a whole lot more favorable to the south had Lincoln lived. His death brought a lot of people to power who sought nothing more than revenge.
Few in the south hailed Boothe as a hero both because his was a cowardly act and because they knew it would bring harsh treatment on the south.
I knew what you meant by the tone of the rest of your comment.
I should leave making this point about "With malice toward none, with charity for all" to you :P
Lincoln would have shipped African-Americans to the Caribbean and Liberia. So yes it would have gone real smooth. /sarc
Apology accepted.
No. 5 of American Presidents. A hero in every way.
Keep in mind that Eric Foner, perhaps the leading historian of the Reconstruction today and who is quoted extensively here, is a Marxist.
A drunken, corrupt, incompetent doesn’t look so bad after Jimmy, Billy, Barry and the current crop in Congress.
After the Siege of Corinth Grant stayed at the Whitfield Mansion and his wife, Julia Dent, joined him. Late Summer after the fall of Memphis Julia enjoyed the furniture at the mansion so much she took most of it home to Galena, Illinois. Confederate cavalry overtook Julia between Corinth and Memphis and her wagons of furniture but didn't know who or what they had come across and Ms. Grant did not tell them who she was. The Confederates thought that she was a woman fleeing the Federal Army. The Confederate Cavalryman that wrote about the experience also thought her to be one homely woman.
I stopped reading after the author stated that you had to go to LBJ to find a person who had done as much for blacks. Is he insane? Everything LBJ did was to destroy the black family and the chances of blacks being successful.
Except that the original manuscript is in the Library of Congress and can be compared to the final book, and its style is perfectly consistent with his letters, orders and reports.
Why bother?
The Nazis had lots of Victory parades. That must make them the good guys or something.
Grant was indeed a great man. Much of his best work was done reconstructing the South.
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