Ulysses S. Grant – The 18th president of the United States
On April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, Ulysses S. Grant, the general-in-chief of the Armies of the United States, sat across a table from Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general of the Army of Northern Virginia, to accept the surrender of Lee’s army. The Civil War was effectively over. After four years of the bloodiest war in American history, one that produced at least 620,000 dead Americans, uniting the country would be difficult. For his part, Grant said to his Union officers at Lee’s surrender, “The war is over. The Rebels are our countrymen again.”
How was the United States going to move forward as one nation? Before his death, and while the Civil War was still raging, President Abraham Lincoln discussed a plan to readmit Southern states to the Union after 10% of its voters took a loyalty oath to the Union and Constitution, and the state recognized the emancipation of enslaved people. He wanted the country to reunite as quickly as possible. Lincoln never had the opportunity to lead the country through the post-war period. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth just five days after Appomattox, on April 14. Therefore, different voices influenced what was called Reconstruction.
Many in Congress within Lincoln’s Republican Party wanted a much more stringent path for the readmission of the Confederate states back into the Union, one which they believed would re-make Southern society. History gave these members of Congress the name “Radical Republicans” because they were not only consistent in their opposition to slavery but sought civil rights for all African Americans, including universal male suffrage.
After Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the seventeenth president of the United States. Johnson was a Democrat from Tennessee who opposed secession. Lincoln chose him to bring unity between the North and the South. Johnson was a slaveholder who freed his slaves in 1863. However, for him, the war was never about ending slavery nor about equal rights for African Americans. His focus seemed to be advocating for poor whites against the wealthy Southern planter class.
President Johnson’s Reconstruction plan granted wide latitude to former Confederate states to manage their affairs. The only major requirements for being readmitted to the Union were to abolish slavery through ratification of the 13th Amendment and to repudiate secession. Johnson’s vision immediately conflicted with Republicans controlling Congress about how Reconstruction should proceed.
After all the death and carnage of the war, the country faced complex realities. Many Southern cities were left in ruins, the Southern economy was in shambles, and most importantly, 4 million freed black slaves, almost all of whom were not educated under Southern law, needed to become part of a free America. With the assassination of Lincoln at the hands of the Southern sympathizer and white supremacist Booth, the emotions of the moment only heightened and calls for retribution against Confederate states only grew louder.
For Southerners, whose reality was nothing but a society based on a racial hierarchy where black slaves were at the bottom, the idea of instant equality among blacks and whites was not acceptable for many, especially after the bloody Civil War. Most Southern governments’ initial response to the nearly 4 million freed slaves was to implement “Black Codes,” or laws that were meant to keep freed black slaves in the plantation system by making them agree to one-sided labor contracts. These contracts limited the economic ability of freed slaves and all African Americans.
On December 6, 1865, Georgia ratified the 13th Amendment, officially abolishing slavery in the United States. That same month, all eleven former Confederate states sent representatives and senators to Congress with many of the same people who had led the secession movement or were Confederate officers during the war. The Republicans in Congress refused to seat them.
As 1866 began, clear lines were being drawn within Congress. Radical Republicans such as Rep. Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts continued to push for national racial equality and more stringent requirements for Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union. This put them at odds with President Johnson, who maintained his belief in states’ rights. Congress passed a Civil Rights Act in 1866, stating that all persons born in the United States were national citizens who enjoyed equal treatment under the law. Johnson vetoed the legislation, but Congress overrode his veto.
A committee controlled by Republicans in Congress was formed to draft a new Constitutional Amendment that guaranteed citizenship for all freed black slaves. Shortly after, Congress passed the 14th Amendment, the most important amendment to the Constitution since the Bill of Rights. Not only does the 14th Amendment guarantee citizenship, but it also forbids states from depriving any citizen of equal protection under the law.
In 1867, Congress divided the former Confederacy into five military districts over Andrew Johnson’s objections. To be readmitted to the Union, former Confederate states needed to ratify the 14th Amendment and draft new state Constitutions that allowed for voting regardless of race. The tension between Johnson and Congress only grew. Congress passed a law named the Tenure of Office Act that required the president to seek Congressional approval before firing a cabinet officer. After Johnson attempted to remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Republicans in the House of Representatives impeached him. This was the first impeachment in United States history. President Andrew Johnson went on trial in the Senate and was acquitted by a single vote on May 26, 1868.
While debates and politics occurred in Washington, D.C., over how best to move the country forward, the people of the country, both North and South, moved forward with their lives. However, for some, newfound equality among races wasn’t acceptable, and they began to organize themselves in groups. The most notorious of these groups was the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
The KKK’s origins are somewhat debated, but the most common belief among historians is that the group was formed in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866 by six former Confederate soldiers. While it started as a group that played pranks on black Americans, it quickly changed into something very different. Its message of stopping racial equality and maintaining a racial hierarchy in which whites remained at the top attracted many former Confederate soldiers and other Southerners seeking to maintain the old social order. Their tactics quickly evolved into domestic terrorism. Black families became the targets of violent attacks, including murders, rapes, and lynchings, to stop blacks from exercising their newly won rights. The Klan was able to do this largely without retribution or punishment, as local law enforcement sometimes actively participated in or turned a blind eye to the criminal acts of the KKK. The Klan spread throughout the South, targeting blacks and white Republicans who the Klan considered to be enablers of black civil rights.
During the presidency of Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant remained the commander of the United States Army. Reports of the Klan’s growing numbers and crimes began to reach him. Grant immediately ordered Klan members in Southern states under federal control to be arrested if they committed crimes. He understood the threat the Klan posed in rolling back black equality and undermining the tremendous sacrifice Union soldiers made during the war.
When the Republicans needed a presidential candidate in 1868, they turned to Ulysses S. Grant. He won. General Grant became President Grant, but he remained the same person throughout. One constant remained – Grant was hated in the South.
Grant immediately called on Congress to act over the increasing violence in the South. He wrote to Speaker of the House James Blaine, ” There is a deplorable state of affairs existing in some portions of the south demanding the immediate attention of Congress. If the attention of Congress can be confined to the single subject of providing means for the protection of life and property in those sections of the Country where the present civil authority fails to secure that end, I feel that we should have such legislation.”
In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed a series of laws known as the “Ku Klux Klan Acts.” These laws prohibited “banding together” or wearing disguises to violate citizens’ constitutional rights. Klan members wore white hoods and robes to disguise their identities, so these laws directly targeted the KKK. Because one of the targets of the Klan was to prevent black males from voting, federal elections were put under the supervision of federal judges and U.S. Marshals. The laws enabled President Grant or future presidents to suspend Habeas Corpus (the ability of someone to contest their imprisonment) and use the military to enforce the provisions of the laws.
However, federal resources were limited. The army had downsized tremendously after the Civil War, and the federal government was trying to enforce federal laws in Southern states. On June 22, 1870, the Department of Justice was created. Its principal purpose was to protect the rights of newly freed slaves under the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and 15th Amendment, the last of which was ratified while Grant was president and guaranteed the right to vote to all black males. The Department of Justice, under the Attorney General, was to be the federal government’s enforcement arm to ensure equal rights to all citizens.
Grant sought to enforce the Ku Klux Klan Acts. In 1871, he declared, “I will not hesitate to exhaust the powers thus vested in the Executive, whenever and wherever it shall become necessary to do so for the purpose of securing to all citizens of the United States the peaceful enjoyment of the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution and laws.” The Klan used terror, intimidation, and, in some cases, murder to accomplish their goal of stopping civil rights for all. Grant sent in the military to various areas of the South, including South Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where Habeas Corpus was suspended and local Klan leaders were arrested and turned over to the Department of Justice for prosecution.
While Grant was sending a message that he would fight the terror tactics of the Ku Klux Klan and its supporters, he faced a complex reality. The country was in a transition where the federal government was more active than ever in the affairs of individual states and their residents. For many across the political divide, this was an uncomfortable infringement upon the principles of federalism under which the republic was established. As time moved forward, the use of the military to quell domestic violence became less supported by the public. Other issues began to take on greater importance and attention at the federal level. For instance, in 1873, there was a financial panic in the country that needed to be addressed by lawmakers.
While a president can work with Congress to enact laws and take other actions within the bounds of the Constitution, the people of the nation will decide how they want to live. Unfortunately, the post-Civil War South was not ready to quickly change the old social order. Grant enforced federal law where he could through the end of his presidency, with mixed results.
By 1876, only South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were under Republican control, mainly because these states had a large military presence. All the other Southern states were controlled by Democrats, who hated Grant. Grant chose not to run for reelection, so the presidential election was between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden. The presidential election results in the three Republican-controlled Southern states were contested, and uncertainty hung over the country. The Republican, Hayes, ultimately became president, but a compromise was reached to drop the military occupation of the South in exchange. By 1877, the historical period known as Reconstruction was over.
In 1925, 30,000 plus KKK members marched in Washington, D.C. Americans today must understand the progress that has been made in the United States. The country is the most successful multi-racial society in world history.
While the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were ratified and became part of the Constitution, a new era of racial segregation in public places enforced through Jim Crow laws became the norm in the American South. The Ku Klux Klan and its hateful rhetoric and violent tactics remained in place. However, Grant’s efforts slowed the growth of the KKK.
The KKK’s power and membership grew at the beginning of the 20th century. It would take many more generations of Americans, led by the Christian churches of the South and individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 1950s and 1960s, to see Grant’s and the Radical Republican’s vision of equal rights for all become a reality.
The landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It was passed in a bipartisan manner, with most of the holdouts representing Southern states. The House voted 290 to 130 in favor, while the Senate voted 73 to 27 in favor. In opposition to the bill, Southern Democrats led a 74-day filibuster in the Senate. This legislation was followed by the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which further made discrimination illegal in the United States.
Ulysses S. Grant’s reputation was attacked during his lifetime and thereafter. He has been called a drunk, has been attacked because his wife was from Missouri and her family owned slaves, and had his character questioned because some members of his presidential administration were implicated in corruption. Further discussion is needed to address these issues, but the historical record suggests that Grant’s detractors have overstated the impact of these charges to impugn him.
Grant remains one of the great American heroes and lived one of the most consequential American lives in history. He is one of three men who were the highest-ranked military officers in the country during their lifetimes while also serving as two-term presidents. George Washington and Dwight D. Eisenhower are the other two.
General Grant led the Union Army to victory in the Civil War after lesser military leadership failed. President Grant fought back against violence, hatred, and prejudice.
Note: Grant’s birth name is Hiram Ulysses Grant, although he always went by Ulysses growing up. The “S” resulted from a mistake in his West Point application that was believed to be for “Simpson,” his mother’s maiden name. His West Point classmates called him Sam for “Uncle Sam.” Grant stated, “You know I have an “S” in my name and don’t know what it stands for.”