History UsefulNotes / UlyssesSGrant

Grant, the first president to [[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-president-ulysses-s-grant-was-arrested-for-speeding-in-a-horse-drawn-carriage-180981916/ receive a speeding ticket]], drove his carriage through Washington D.C. at over forty miles per hour, earning a citation. Despite the officer giving him a pass due to Grant being the president, Grant insisted on receiving the ticket and later awarded the officer. He also won an impromptu drag race against Andrew Johnson's carriage, with Johnson still inside.

Interestingly, Grant was the first president to [[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-president-ulysses-s-grant-was-arrested-for-speeding-in-a-horse-drawn-carriage-180981916/ get a speeding ticket]]. He was a bit of a speed freak, and one day he drove his carriage through Washington D.C. [[DrivesLikeCrazy going upwards of forty miles an hour]] before he was stopped and ticketed. The officer was going to let him off once he realized ''who'' was driving, but Grant insisted the man complete the citation, and later presented him an award for doing so. He also won an impromptu drag race against UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson's carriage. With Pres. Johnson still in it.

He is notable in that he seems to have been fairly openly non-religious. He came from a Methodist family and was married to a Methodist but was never baptized like his siblings were. His parents never made him attend church as a child like they did for the others either. He never belonged to any specific church throughout his entire life and was given demerits at West Point for not attending chapel, which he said was because he believed it was anti-republican to force students at a government owned school to attend religious services. His son Jesse believed he was probably agnostic.

Grant was an intensely loyal man, rarely forgetting when somebody had treated him nicely during the rough years between his army service before and during the Civil War, and he would often come to regret such loyalty as people he had trusted turned out to be corrupt or double crossed him in business dealings. He was bankrupted by a [[{{Ponzi}} investment swindle]] in his last years but wrote [[{{Determinator}} (with iron will while dying from cancer)]] a memoir that is widely regarded as the best ever written by a president, and perhaps one of the best written by ''any'' American. His writing is filled with sharp observations, strong opinions, and dry humor while giving first-hand accounts of some of the most extraordinary episodes in American history.

The work was published posthumously by Creator/MarkTwain, a personal friend who promised a fair deal. Twain was true to his word and book's success left Grant's family in relatively good financial standing. There is a conspiracy theory that Twain ghostwrote (part of) the biography, but besides all the material evidence to counter that idea, there is the fact that Twain famously wrote a lot of PurpleProse while Grant's [[BeigeProse wordings are as short, precise, concise and direct]] as his military orders.

Interestingly, Grant was the first president to get a speeding ticket. He was a bit of a speed freak, and one day he drove his carriage through Washington D.C. [[DrivesLikeCrazy going upwards of forty miles an hour]] before he was stopped and ticketed. The officer was going to let him off once he realized ''who'' was driving, but Grant insisted the man complete the citation, and later presented him an award for doing so. He also won an impromptu drag race against UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson's carriage. With Pres. Johnson still in it.

->''"I think I am a verb instead of a personal pronoun. A verb is anything that signifies to be; to do; to suffer. [[DeadpanSnarker I signify all three.]]"''

* ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' was set during Grant's presidency, and he occasionally appeared as a character.
** Likewise he appears in the film loosely based on the TV series, ''Film/WildWildWest''. For a movie that took ''tremendous'' ArtisticLicense with basically everything, Grant's actor, Creator/KevinKline, actually consulted Grant scholars and took great efforts to portray the president accurately.

* ''Literature/HowFewRemain'', by Creator/HarryTurtledove, takes place in an AlternateTimeline 20 years after the Union lost the Civil War without Grant ever having the opportunity to gain prominence. Still strongly anti-slavery (and with the Confederacy continuing to practice same), Grant is seen briefly at a speech by abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Alcoholism has clearly gotten the better of the former general, and Douglass himself is the only one to recognize him. This portrayal has been criticized for its DatedHistory.

Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885), born as Hiram Ulysses Grant,[[note]][[EmbarrassingInitials Note what the initials spell out.]][[/note]] was the 18th President of the United States, serving between [[TheGildedAge 1869 and 1877]], preceded by UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and succeeded by UsefulNotes/RutherfordBHayes; he was the first president to serve two full terms since UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson forty years before him.[[note]]UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk, UsefulNotes/FranklinPierce, and UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, were only ever elected to one term and either lost re-election or declined to run again; UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison and UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor were elected and then died mere weeks after starting their respective first terms; UsefulNotes/JohnTyler and UsefulNotes/MillardFillmore completed Harison and Taylor's terms (respectively) but were shooed away come the next election; and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln was assassinated shortly after the start of his second term, which was completed by UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson, who was shooed away from both the Republican and Democratic nominations in 1868.[[/note]]

Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885), born as Hiram Ulysses Grant,[[note]][[EmbarrassingInitials Note what the initials spell out.]][[/note]] was the 18th President of the United States, serving between [[TheGildedAge 1869 and 1877]], preceded by UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and succeeded by UsefulNotes/RutherfordBHayes; he was the first president to serve two full terms since UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson forty years before him.[[note]]UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren, UsefulNotes/JohnTyler, UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk, UsefulNotes/MillardFillmore, UsefulNotes/FranklinPierce, UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan, and UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson served only one term each, with Tyler, Fillmore, and Johnson not even serving full terms, while UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison, UsefulNotes/ZacharyTaylor, and UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln died in office (the latter having been assassinated).[[/note]]

* ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' depicts Ulysses S. Grant along with the main cast fighting off against zombified Confederate soldiers in 1863 Mississippi. Without Henry Scott stealing the Confederate's battle plans, the North could lose the Battle of Vicksburg, and subsequently the war, leading to the Confederacy successfully seceding.
* ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' was set during Grant's presidency, and he occasionally appeared as a character.
** Likewise he appears in the film loosely based on the TV series, ''Film/WildWildWest''. For a movie that took ''tremendous'' ArtisticLicense with basically everything, Grant's actor, Creator/KevinKline, actually consulted Grant scholars and took great efforts to portray the president accurately.
* Flashbacks in the ''Literature/PresidentsVampire'' series show that unlike Johnson -- who treated [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire Cade]] like an animal and locked him up in a cell whenever not using him -- Grant treated him with respect and even seemed to befriend him (and also sent him on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against [[AncientConspiracy the Order]] for assassinating Lincoln). His alcoholism is portrayed as a result of the stresses of office.
* ''Literature/HowFewRemain'', by Creator/HarryTurtledove, takes place in an AlternateTimeline 20 years after the Union lost the Civil War without Grant ever having the opportunity to gain prominence. Still strongly anti-slavery (and with the Confederacy continuing to practice same), Grant is seen briefly at a speech by abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Alcoholism has clearly gotten the better of the former general, and Douglass himself is the only one to recognize him. This portrayal has been criticized for its DatedHistory.

* In the TV series, ''Series/{{North and South|US}}'', Senior Cadet Grant's sympathy is a major reason Orrey Maine survives the vicious abuse by Elkanah Bent at West Point. During UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, George Hazard agrees with President UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln's confidence to appointing Grant as his main general and George is assigned to approach Grant about the offer, and they get along well.
* Grant is a supporting character in Creator/GoreVidal's novels ''Lincoln'' and ''1876''. Vidal admired Grant (outside of the novels, he called Grant's memoirs one of the greatest books in the English language) and portrays him as a man of HiddenDepths who's constantly underestimated by those around him. That said, Vidal's not shy about showing the corruption of his presidency, which forms the backdrop to ''1876''.
* In the 1911 play that inspired the Creator/ShirleyTemple film ''Film/TheLittlestRebel'', Grant is the officer in charge of the court martial of Morrison, the Union soldier, and Cary, a Confederate and the heroine's father. Since the play was written by a Southerner who lived during the nadir of American race relations, Grant's portrayal is that of [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade a psychopathic maniac]], with him yelling that he doesn't care that Virgie's father is innocent, as the whole point of war is to be as brutal as possible. [[spoiler:Despite this, he does eventually let him go]], though that doesn't make up for the hatchet-job of his portrayal.

For most of the time since his term ended in 1877, Grant's administration had a reputation for corruption and economic troubles, although frankly, this is more because he ''didn't'' do anything (a popular joke among historians is calling him "Useless Grant"), rather than any personal corruption. Grant's own conduct was fairly clean (apart from alleged alcoholism[[note]]This has been overblown and historians of the 21st century can find fewer and fewer pieces of evidence for it -- all the evidence available points more to Grant being [[CantHoldHisLiquor a lightweight]] who only drank on campaign when he [[DrowningMySorrows missed his wife]].[[/note]]), but he preferred to delegate as much as he could, and many of the cabinet members to whom he delegated were notoriously crooked. If anything, Grant was too honest for his own good, and couldn't understand how anybody would betray the public trust, or betray him personally; he was also, in several instances, a poor judge of character (a trait which his memoirs show was with him all the way back to the Mexican war). However, he gets credit for keeping Reconstruction going and delaying the era of Jim Crow for as long as he could. His Civil Rights Acts were very similar to the one passed nearly 100 years later in the 1960s, but were overturned by the Supreme Court. Recent scholars have rated him significantly higher than in the past, largely due to increased appreciation for his efforts against racial discrimination (he effectively destroyed the first UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan in 1871). As part of the effort to enforce civil rights laws, the role of Attorney General transitioned from the President's legal advisor to the head of the newly-created Department of Justice, responsible for overseeing federal law enforcement. He's also notable for creating Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the first national park in American history and, arguably, world history (though Lincoln had already set aside Yosemite Valley for "public use, resort, and recreation," essentially making it a national park in all but name). Whether the negative assessment of Grant was due to [[WrittenByTheWinners Southern sympathies]] of many 20th-century historians or ValuesDissonance is an interesting question to ponder. If nothing else, many feel that had he called it a day after his first term, he would be very likely remembered as one of the country's greatest Presidents, and that his reputation was, fairly or otherwise, heavily tarnished by his struggle to deal with the corruption and economic problems that surfaced in his second term.

* He has a brief appearance in ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'' where he is played by Creator/JaredHarris.

Grant was born in Ohio as the first child of Jesse and Hannah Grant (née Simpson). Four more children: Simpson, Clara, Orvil, Jennie, and Mary would follow. Jesse Grant was an ambitious man who believed his oldest son was destined for greatness. Jesse was successful enough with his tannery business that he was able to send his children to school. Hannah is said to have been a quiet and deeply religious woman whom her oldest son took after in personality. When a recession hit the country in the mid 1830s, Jesse was able to get their Congressman to appoint Ulysses to West Point since he couldn’t pay for his schooling on his own. It was during this application process that the “S.” moniker stuck with him. It’s believed the Congressman got him mixed up with his brother Simpson.

After the Mexican-American War, Grant served on the western frontier for a time, even growing to like UsefulNotes/{{California}} enough that he seriously considered moving his family out there to settle once he left the military. However, he resigned from the Army in early 1854 after his intermittent drinking problem got him into trouble with his commanding officer, although no formal citation was ever handed down. He spent the rest of the decade trying his hand at various business ventures that all failed in St. Louis before he eventually sucked up his pride and moved back home to take a job in one of his father’a businesses. He also became the last president to own a slave, as he acquired one slave from his father-in-law in 1858, but not being able to bring himself to force a slave to do work, the following year -- at a time when he desperately needed money[[note]]He had to pawn his watch to buy his family Christmas presents![[/note]] -- he freed him instead of selling him for what could easily have been worth at least $1,000 at the time.[[note]]About $30,000 in 2020.[[/note]]

* In the 2010 game ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', the BigBad of the game's 4th [[DownloadableContent DLC]] "Lonesome Road" (as well as the GreaterScopeVillain of the game overall) took the name Ulysses in honor of Grant's victor in the Civil War. The Ulysses from game's evil plan also serves as a dark twist of Genral Grant victory.

After the Mexican-American War, Grant served on the western frontier for a time, even growing to like UsefulNotes/{{California}} enough that he seriously considered moving his family out there to settle once he left the military. However, this was not to be and he went back home, where he tried his hand in several fields, but failed at nearly all of them. He also became the last president to own a slave, as he acquired one slave from his father-in-law in 1858, but not being able to bring himself to force a slave to do work, the following year -- at a time when he desperately needed money[[note]]He had to pawn his watch to buy his family Christmas presents![[/note]] -- he freed him instead of selling him for what could easily have been worth at least $1,000 at the time.[[note]]About $30,000 in 2020.[[/note]]

As the country's biggest military hero since UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington himself, it was considered only natural that he run for President at the earliest available opportunity, and he won the 1868 election despite being pushed surprisingly close by Democratic candidate Horatio Seymour. He was the youngest president to be inaugurated up to that point (age 46), and is still the fourth-youngest ever.[[note]]Only UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, and UsefulNotes/BillClinton have yet become president at an earlier age.[[/note]] Grant's first term as president, from 1869 to 1873, was at the time regarded as pretty unimpressive, albeit slightly better than his much-loathed predecessor, Andrew Johnson. He still won another term (1873–77) however, partly because of his reputation as a war hero, but more so because the Democratic Party had temporarily collapsed. It briefly looked as if Grant would run unopposed, until a loose conglomeration of Democrats and dissident Republicans combined to put up newspaper magnate Horace Greeley as Grant's rival. Their campaign was spectacularly mismanaged, Greeley was suffering the onset of dementia, and to add insult to injury he died a few weeks after being soundly trounced in the election. No sooner had he been re-elected, however, than Grant was faced with the Panic of 1873, one of the biggest financial crises in the history of the country, and probably second only to TheGreatDepression in terms of severity.[[note]]The Panic was initially less severe, though ended up dragging on until the early 1890s; the Great Depression's a little harder to compare due to UsefulNotes/WorldWarII happening.[[/note]] For the remainder of his time in office, Grant's name was basically mud. Rutherford B. Hayes replaced him at the top of the Republican ticket in 1876.

For most of the time since his term ended in 1877, Grant's administration had a reputation for corruption and economic troubles, although frankly, this is more because he ''didn't'' do anything (a popular joke among historians is calling him "Useless Grant"), rather than any personal corruption. Grant's own conduct was fairly clean (apart from alleged alcoholism[[note]]This has been overblown and historians of the 21st century can find fewer and fewer pieces of evidence for it -- all the evidence available points more to Grant being [[CantHoldHisLiquor a lightweight]] who only drank on campaign when he [[DrowningMySorrows missed his wife]].[[/note]]), but he preferred to delegate as much as he could, and many of the cabinet members to whom he delegated were notoriously crooked. If anything, Grant was too honest for his own good, and couldn't understand how anybody would betray the public trust, or betray him personally; he was also, in several instances, a poor judge of character (a trait which his memoirs show was with him all the way back to the Mexican war). However, he gets credit for keeping Reconstruction going and delaying the era of Jim Crow for as long as he could. His Civil Rights Acts were very similar to the one passed nearly 100 years later in the 1960s, but were overturned by the Supreme Court. Recent scholars have rated him significantly higher than in the past, largely due to increased appreciation for his efforts against racial discrimination (he effectively destroyed the first UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan in 1871). As part of the effort to enforce civil rights laws, the role of Attorney General transitioned from the President's legal advisor to the head of the newly-created Department of Justice, responsible for overseeing federal law enforcement. He's also notable for creating Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the first national park in American history and, arguably, world history (though Lincoln had already set aside Yosemite Valley for "public use, resort, and recreation," essentially making it a national park in all but name). Whether the negative assessment of Grant was due to [[WrittenByTheWinners Southern sympathies]] of many 20th-century historians or ValuesDissonance is an interesting question to ponder.