Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ulysses S. Grant Died 130 Years Ago. Racists Hate Him, But Historians No Longer Do.
The Huffington Post ^ | 23rd July 2015 | Nick Baumann

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 ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: butcher; civilwar; columbia; corrupt; corruptpresident; democratsforslavery; grant; hiramulyssesgrant; presidents; reconstruction; thebutcher; thecivilwar; theconfederacysucked; ulyssessgrant; williamadunning
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-118 next last
To: the scotsman

Jean Edward Smith recounts the story about Grant threatening to resign if Robert E. Lee was tried for treason. At the surrender at Appomattox, Grant had promised Lee that no officers would be prosecuted (in effect) for treason. After President Lincoln was assassinated some Northerners wanted revenge against the South. In June 1865 Robert E. Lee was indicted for treason. General Grant went to the White House and confronted President Andrew Johnson demanding that the terms of the Surrender be kept. He threatened to resign if charges were not dropped and Johnson backed down. Grant’s heart was huge. No doubt, Churchill had Grant in mind with his, “In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will.”


61 posted on 07/24/2015 4:09:23 PM PDT by donaldo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: the scotsman

You guys are fighting a past war all over again.
Now which is better? An iPhone or an Android phone : )
Windows pc vs a mac? : )
Ginger or Mary Ann <— definitely Mary Ann!


62 posted on 07/24/2015 4:13:30 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ronnietherocket3
As opposed to what the South did, which was to enslave people, beat them and deny them liberty?

Slavery held sway under 89 years of Union Rule. How about you put most of that hatred on the Government that dominated that period?

How about you face the fact that the Union was going to CONTINUE slavery if the war had ended sooner?

Five Union States maintained slavery through most of the War. If the Union was fighting to end slavery, they could have started with those.

63 posted on 07/24/2015 4:15:13 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp
The Nazis had lots of Victory parades.

The one at the end of the war is the one that counts.

That must make them the good guys or something.

It makes them the winners.

64 posted on 07/24/2015 4:17:47 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep ("The rat always knows when he's in with weasels."--Tom Waits)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
"Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?"

Jimmy Hoffa.
65 posted on 07/24/2015 4:18:20 PM PDT by clearcarbon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: KC_Lion
Men who waged War against the Vows and Country they Took in the Armed Forces?

Which is not nearly as bad as violating the Foundation Document of this nation.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The South exercised their right to independence as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, The Union violated those principles, in effect REBELLING against the Founding charter of this nation.

It would appear that the "traitors" won that war.

66 posted on 07/24/2015 4:20:04 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase

I’ve got Grant’s memoir sitting on the shelf beside me. It is indeed a great read.

...

Grant wrote it as he was dying from throat cancer to make money for his wife to live on. At the time, there wasn’t much of a retirement for an officer or a president. And his wealth had been wiped out by his crook of a partner in his Wall Street firm. Mark Twain was the publisher. The memoir is short and entertaining. I’ve been a fan of Grant since reading it.

He went from being a clerk in his father’s store, to the most famous man in the world in the span of a few years.


67 posted on 07/24/2015 4:21:46 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: central_va

His liver hasn’t been officially declared dead.

...

It’s doubtful he’d had any alcohol during the Civil War or as president. Cigars were a different matter.


68 posted on 07/24/2015 4:23:26 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: the scotsman

On April 20, 1871, President Grant signed the Ku Klux Klan Act which was one of the first anti-terrorist acts ever passed in the world. He more or less crushed the largest terrorist organization of his time, but unfortunately, the Klan eventually recovered and even thrived for some time after Grant was gone. We have been fighting terrorism for a long time.


69 posted on 07/24/2015 4:24:42 PM PDT by Tau Food (Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: minnesota_bound
You guys are fighting a past war all over again.

It isn't past. It's still going on. Look at the voting patterns between Republicans and Democrats nationwide.

Many issues of today are deeply rooted in that conflict. We owe our "Gay Marriage" to the 14th amendment. As a matter of fact, we owe our President to the 14th amendment, without which he would not be regarded as a citizen.

The consequences of that war are still with us and still causing damage. FedZilla has simply made slaves of all of us.

70 posted on 07/24/2015 4:29:20 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Bubba Ho-Tep

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.

...

Yep. Grant was very intelligent, spoke and wrote well. And like Lincoln, he was good at math, too. His goal as a young man was to eventually become a math professor, but fate wouldn’t allow it.


71 posted on 07/24/2015 4:29:21 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Bubba Ho-Tep
The one at the end of the war is the one that counts.

So if the Nazis had won, you would no doubt be out there waving their flag. I do not doubt this about you. You seem like you would make a good little Nazi. You already believe in their mantra. "Might makes right."

What was that thing about slavery again? It is wrong to beat someone down and slap chains on them? I guess your answer is "Well it depends on who's doing it."

Obviously if it is the "winner", it is all right.

72 posted on 07/24/2015 4:33:43 PM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: SeeSharp

When he couldn’t defeat Lee in the field he turned to making war on civilians.

...

Good grief. That’s nothing but Lost Cause nonsense.


73 posted on 07/24/2015 4:36:39 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: xp38

Grant looks like a big burly man on the fifty. He was actually short and weighed about 135 when he was president according to his wife.


74 posted on 07/24/2015 4:39:22 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Bringbackthedraft

Grant was a nice guy, it was his friends and appointees that screwed his administration up. He put his trust in the wrong people.

...

Not always, but it was his one big flaw. It hurt him as president and later on in business.


75 posted on 07/24/2015 4:41:24 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Moonman62

Yes, in many respects, Grant was too nice a guy. His work in the South following the War was magnificent, but loyalty to friends in Washington led him to overlook too many of their shortcomings.


76 posted on 07/24/2015 4:44:21 PM PDT by Tau Food (Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: xp38

Believe it or not, I found two of those recently in a money belt I bought at a second-hand store. Stuff like just never happens to me. :o)


77 posted on 07/24/2015 4:46:45 PM PDT by beelzepug (liberalism is not...a political philosophy. It is a stage of arrested emotional development.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: SeeSharp
And we did the same in WW2.

I have no problems with taking a war to the support staff of an enemy. Total war is a commendable tactic. It works.

78 posted on 07/24/2015 5:08:41 PM PDT by Thumper1960 (A modern so-called "Conservative" is a shadow of a wisp of a vertebrate human being.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: DiogenesLamp
So if the Nazis had won, you would no doubt be out there waving their flag. I do not doubt this about you. You seem like you would make a good little Nazi. You already believe in their mantra. "Might makes right."

You know what? I'm done with you. Do not ping me again.

79 posted on 07/24/2015 5:13:25 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep ("The rat always knows when he's in with weasels."--Tom Waits)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: 2banana

I’m a Southerner, and I think Lee and Jackson were the best one-two punch in U.S. military history. But I have always had great respect for Grant. He did, indeed, know how to win.

Yes, he had the numbers, the resources, the equipment and machinery and money on his side. But so did McDowell. So did McClellan. And they had no clue what to do with their advantage.


80 posted on 07/24/2015 5:25:59 PM PDT by ought-six (1u)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-118 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson