What critics usually fail to mention is that, as president, Grant made it his personal mission to crush the Ku Klux Klan. He sent Army troops to Southern states to enforce reconstruction laws. If the worst that can be said of someone is that they were too trusting of friends, most could accept that criticism. The scandals reflect that Grant trusted friends and colleagues to a fault. But Grant himself was never personally implicated nor involved. Some of Grant’s closest advisors were involved. As to the allegations of corruption, his administration was indeed plagued by multiple scandals: nepotism, gold speculation, postal graft, diversion of tax revenue, and more. His battlefield successes, born of his leadership, turned the tide. According to that movement, Grant was a drunk, an incompetent butcher, and presided over a corrupt presidential administration. Others speculate that the pro-Confederate Lost Cause movement in the early 20th Century swayed popular opinion against him. Hesseltine thinks it’s just because Grant’s enemies were better writers than his friends. Why the decline in Grant’s reputation? Grant biographer, William B. Yet last year, Grant’s 200th birthday anniversary passed without national notice. The largest of its kind in the United States, the statue depicts Grant at two and one-half times life size. A parade down Pennsylvania Avenue concluded with the unveiling of a majestic equestrian statue at the foot of the Capitol, directly aligned on the National Mall with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Thirty-seven years later, on the 100th anniversary of his birthday, April 27, 1922, the nation again celebrated Grant, by proclamation of President Warren Harding. Grant was ultimately interred in what is the largest mausoleum in North America, “ Grant’s Tomb.” The funeral procession stretched for seven miles and took five hours to reach the burial site. Now consider that, at that time, the city’s population was only 1.9 million. To understand the depth of respect Grant enjoyed in his day, consider this: On August 8, 1885, more than 1.5 million people attended his New York City funeral. But a full accounting of his service to this country might turn that around. Since 1885, Grant’s reputation has waned. Our 18th president, whose birthday is Thursday, April 27, might seem out of place on this list. In the late 19th Century, the three individuals most widely regarded as the nation’s greatest presidents were George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and… Ulysses S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |