The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace
H.W. Brands
Language: English
Pages: 752
ISBN: 0307475158
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Ulysses Grant emerges in this masterful biography as a genius in battle and a driven president to a divided country, who remained fearlessly on the side of right. He was a beloved commander in the field who made the sacrifices necessary to win the war, even in the face of criticism. He worked valiantly to protect the rights of freed men in the South. He allowed the American Indians to shape their own fate even as the realities of Manifest Destiny meant the end of their way of life. In this sweeping and majestic narrative, bestselling author H.W. Brands now reconsiders Grant's legacy and provides an intimate portrait of a heroic man who saved the Union on the battlefield and consolidated that victory as a resolute and principled political leader.
without Senate endorsement of the removal. Johnson deemed the measure unconstitutional and vetoed it. The Republicans again overrode his veto. “One of the most ridiculous veto messages that ever emanated from any president,” was how Grant characterized Johnson’s failed argument against the reconstruction law. Grant learned that Jeremiah Black, attorney general under James Buchanan, had drafted Johnson’s message. “It is a fitting end to all our controversy…,” Grant wrote Elihu Washburne, “that
military governor, with Sherman as his adjutant. Sherman was in Mason’s office at Monterey the spring the war ended—but before the news of the treaty arrived—when the two Americans entered. “I asked their business,” Sherman recalled, “and one answered that they had just come down from Captain Sutter on special business, and they wanted to see Governor Mason, in person.” Sherman knew John Sutter by reputation, as a Swiss immigrant with a large ranch and trading post at the confluence of the
summoned the Sioux chiefs to Washington to try to get them to relinquish title to the gold region. He professed continued friendship for the Indians and said he would not force them into anything. “I do not propose to ask you to leave the homes where you were born and raised, without your consent.” But he said he couldn’t hold back the gold seekers forever. “Every year this same difficulty will be increased unless the right of the white people to go to that country is granted by you; and it may
similar in spirit and function to the commission Grant had convened, and it made possible the transfer of tens of thousands of federal patronage jobs to a nonpolitical system based on merit. A second consequence was additional damage to the Republican party. The charitable view of Chester Arthur was that he wasn’t the worst of the spoilsmen, but no one had considered him presidential material at the time of his nomination for vice president, and the fact that he now was president changed few
regularly published articles under the headline “General Grant’s Movements.” Americans learned that President Arthur hosted Grant and Julia for a state dinner at the White House in January 1883. They read weeks later that he had testified before the Senate on behalf of a treaty reducing tariffs between the United States and Mexico. They followed him on a summer trip to the Pacific Northwest when the Northern Pacific completed the third transcontinental line—after the Union Pacific–Central Pacific