18th President • 1869–1877
Ulysses S. Grant
The Union general who accepted Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox entered the White House determined to secure reunion, protect the political rights of Black Americans, and turn battlefield victory into a durable peace.
The Road to the Presidency
From an Uncertain Career to Union Command
Grant’s rise was neither smooth nor inevitable. The Civil War transformed an obscure former officer into the nation’s most celebrated soldier.
Born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, he entered West Point in 1839 after a congressman mistakenly registered him as Ulysses S. Grant—a name he kept. He graduated in 1843, served with distinction in the Mexican-American War, married Julia Dent, and resigned from the Army in 1854.
Civilian life brought repeated financial difficulty. Grant farmed, sold firewood, attempted several occupations, and eventually worked in his father’s leather-goods business in Galena, Illinois. When the Civil War began in 1861, his military experience suddenly became valuable.
Grant rose rapidly through Union command. His victories at Forts Henry and Donelson opened routes into the Confederate interior. After the costly Battle of Shiloh, he survived demands for his removal and continued advancing. His 1863 Vicksburg campaign gave the Union control of the Mississippi River and divided the Confederacy.
Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general and general-in-chief in March 1864. Grant coordinated all Union armies while accompanying the Army of the Potomac through the Overland Campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and the pursuit that ended at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.
Civil War Leadership
Victory, Surrender, and Restraint
Grant understood that defeating Confederate armies and restoring the Union were connected tasks.
Grant captured Fort Donelson in Tennessee and demanded “unconditional and immediate surrender,” bringing him national attention.
Vicksburg surrendered after Grant’s inland campaign and siege, completing a major part of the Union strategy for control of the Mississippi River.
Promoted to lieutenant general, Grant assumed command of all United States armies and coordinated simultaneous campaigns across multiple theaters.
At Appomattox, Grant offered Lee’s soldiers parole and permitted officers to retain sidearms and privately owned horses. His terms sought to end organized resistance without humiliating the defeated army.
“The war is over—the rebels are our countrymen again.”Statement attributed to Grant after Appomattox
Grant later resisted President Andrew Johnson’s attempt to use him politically and disagreed with Johnson’s approach to Reconstruction. In 1867 he temporarily served as secretary of war after Johnson suspended Edwin Stanton, but he returned the office when the Senate rejected Stanton’s removal. By 1868, Grant had become the Republican Party’s leading presidential candidate.
Defining Decisions
Reconstruction and the Protection of Citizenship
Grant entered office as the nation attempted to enforce the postwar amendments while organized violence threatened Black voters and Republican governments in the South.
The Fifteenth Amendment
Ratified in 1870, the amendment prohibited federal and state governments from denying the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Grant urged ratification and described it as a measure of extraordinary national importance.
The Enforcement Acts
Congress passed laws in 1870 and 1871 to protect voting and combat political terror. Grant signed the measures, used federal marshals and troops, and suspended habeas corpus in parts of South Carolina under statutory authority while federal prosecutors broke up Klan networks.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
Signed near the end of Grant’s second term, the act sought equal access to public accommodations and jury service. The Supreme Court invalidated key provisions in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883.
Waning Northern support
Federal enforcement produced meaningful but temporary gains. Economic depression, political scandal, violence, and declining Northern commitment weakened Reconstruction. After the disputed election of 1876, Grant used federal forces to prevent violence as the electoral conflict moved toward a political settlement.
A central distinction: Grant’s administration used national power more forcefully than Andrew Johnson’s to defend voting and suppress the Ku Klux Klan. Those efforts did not permanently defeat white-supremacist violence or prevent the later rise of disfranchisement and segregation.
Constitution & Power
How Far Could the Federal Government Go?
Grant’s presidency tested whether the new constitutional guarantees created after slavery could be enforced against private terror and resistant state authorities.
The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments changed the relationship between citizenship, the states, and the national government. The Enforcement Acts made interference with voting a federal offense and authorized national officials to supervise elections and prosecute conspiracies that deprived citizens of constitutional rights.
Grant used these powers most aggressively against the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina. Attorney General Amos T. Akerman oversaw prosecutions that disrupted the organization. The policy demonstrated the reach of federal power, but enforcement was uneven across the South and became harder to sustain as political support weakened.
A new federal responsibility
Grant treated protection of voting and citizenship as a national obligation rather than solely a state matter. His actions form an important early chapter in federal civil-rights enforcement, while their limited duration shows how constitutional guarantees can depend on sustained institutions, resources, and political will.
Economy & Administration
Panic, Patronage, and Scandal
Grant’s personal reputation for honesty coexisted with serious corruption and administrative failures among officials and associates.
The Panic of 1873
A financial collapse triggered a severe depression that lasted through much of Grant’s second term. He vetoed an 1874 bill that would have expanded the currency and signed the Specie Payment Resumption Act of 1875, which prepared for redeeming paper money in gold beginning in 1879.
Black Friday
In 1869, speculators Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market while cultivating people close to Grant. The Treasury sold gold to break the scheme, causing prices to collapse. The episode exposed the administration’s vulnerability to influence seekers.
The Whiskey Ring
A network of distillers and revenue officials conspired to evade federal liquor taxes. Grant supported investigation at first, but his loyalty to private secretary Orville Babcock—who was indicted and later acquitted—complicated the prosecution and damaged public confidence.
Reform attempted, then stalled
Grant established the first Civil Service Commission in 1871 and approved rules for competitive examinations. Congressional resistance and Grant’s continued reliance on patronage limited the experiment, and funding ended in 1875.
Several prominent scandals associated with the era did not prove that Grant personally profited. They did reveal recurring weaknesses in appointment, supervision, and judgment. His tendency to trust friends and wartime associates sometimes made it difficult for him to recognize or respond decisively to misconduct.
War & Foreign Policy
Arbitration Abroad, Coercion and Conflict at Home
The Treaty of Washington
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish helped negotiate the 1871 treaty, submitting Civil War disputes—including the Alabama claims—to international arbitration. The settlement eased Anglo-American tensions and became an important precedent for resolving disputes peacefully.
Santo Domingo annexation fails
Grant supported annexing the Dominican Republic, arguing that it offered strategic and economic advantages and a potential refuge for Black Americans. The treaty failed in the Senate amid constitutional, diplomatic, racial, and political objections.
The “Peace Policy”
Grant sought to reduce corruption and warfare by assigning religious organizations roles in reservation administration and appointing Ely S. Parker, a Seneca leader, as commissioner of Indian affairs. The policy remained assimilationist and paternalistic, and conflict, dispossession, broken commitments, and military coercion continued.
Neutrality during rebellion
During Cuba’s Ten Years’ War against Spain, Grant resisted pressure to recognize the rebels’ belligerency and maintained official neutrality. The 1873 Virginius affair brought the United States and Spain close to war before diplomacy produced a settlement.
Lasting Legacy
General, President, and Memoirist
Grant left office in 1877 and traveled around the world with Julia. A later financial partnership collapsed through the fraud of Ferdinand Ward, leaving Grant nearly destitute. Diagnosed with throat cancer, he raced to complete his memoirs so their proceeds would support his family.
Published by Mark Twain’s firm shortly after Grant’s death in 1885, the Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant became both a financial success and a widely admired work of military autobiography. Grant was buried in New York City; Grant’s Tomb was dedicated in 1897.
Union Victory
Grant coordinated national strategy, relentlessly pursued Confederate armies, and paired victory with comparatively generous surrender terms.
Civil-Rights Enforcement
His administration used federal authority to defend Black voting rights and suppress organized political terror during Reconstruction.
Scandal and Weak Oversight
Corruption involving appointees and associates damaged his administration even when Grant was not shown to have personally profited.
A presidency shaped by the unfinished Civil War
Grant’s public life joined two related struggles: preserving the Union by force of arms and defining citizenship after emancipation. His administration’s enforcement against the Ku Klux Klan and support for the Reconstruction amendments are central to its record. So are the limits of Native policy, the economic suffering after 1873, failures of supervision, and the scandals that weakened public trust. His legacy reflects both the expanded promise of postwar citizenship and the nation’s retreat from sustaining it.
Sources & Further Reading
Trace the Evidence
- Ulysses S. Grant — Library of Congress
- Ulysses S. Grant — National Park Service
- The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871 — U.S. Senate
- The Fifteenth Amendment — National Archives
- Ulysses S. Grant Administration: Foreign Relations Documents — Office of the Historian
- Ulysses S. Grant: Presidential Documents — American Presidency Project
- Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant — Library of Congress
Editorial note: This account distinguishes Grant’s military achievements, civil-rights enforcement, and diplomatic record from the administrative failures, coercive Native policy, economic crisis, and political limits of his presidency.