By the Maui Curmudgeon (18th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

ULYSSES S. GRANT: 1869-1877  ~ 18th U.S. President

First, I admit to reading ahead a bit before I write these synopses. So I can say that up to Theodore Roosevelt, the presidency of U.S. Grant is easily the most surprising. The general consensus, particularly in high school history, is that Grant’s administration was a failure, riddled by scandal. The truth is far more interesting. Further, it is impossible to separate the man from his generalship, nor his generalship from his presidency.

He was born Hiram Ulysses (always pronounced U-liss-is) Grant. At 17, he showed up at West Point, and the congressman who recommended him couldn’t remember his name, and so wrote ‘Ulysses S. Grant’ on the form, and thus he became known.

He was in the army from 1839 until his election as president nearly 30 years later. During this time, he fought in dozens of battles from the Mexican War to the Civil War. General Robert E. Lee of the Army of Virginia is justifiably lauded as a great general who did much with little. It is often said that Lee graduated first in his class at West Point, while Grant was 22nd of 34. The story (true) has it that Lincoln offered command of the Union army to Lee when Civil War broke out. Lee turned it down. All this is by way of saying that Lee was the great general while Grant merely won the Civil war because he had greater numbers. This is a mixture of historical misunderstanding and southern lies.

In fact, U.S. Grant is most likely this country’s greatest general ever. He is now considered a military genius; some consider him one of the greatest generals in the history of mankind. In various capacities as Lieutenant, Captain and General, Grant directly commanded 16 enormously important battles, including the battle of Monterrey Mexico in the Mexican War, and the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga and Spotsylvania, in the Civil War. Grant never lost a battle. Ever. (Lee lost more than he won.)

Further, Grant never lost any part of a battle over which he commanded, even when those above him lost the general battle. This includes the battle of Palo Alto during the Mexican War, and the all important battle of Antietam during the Civil War. In fact, during the Union’s largest and most strategically damming loss - the Battle of Second Manassas, Grant was the only Union commander to defeat his counterpart and route his enemy.

Historian John Moser makes an interesting suggestion: Grant was a genius because he had two immense talents one does not normally associate with a soldier. He could draw. He was a whiz at math. Grant had a talent to review a battlefield, and envision it as three-dimentional, and plan his maneuvers accordingly. With math, he could calculate everything from opposing numbers to supplies and logistics. He usually did all this on the run, giving his subcommanders very detailed instructions which left little room for misunderstanding. As a result, his units were cohesive and effective.

Lee was great. Grant was much greater. As Southern historian Shelby Foote said, in Grant, Lincoln finally found a general who could whip Lee but good, and he did.

THE BAD
Despite immense efforts, Grant failed to implement congressional policies successfully during the years of “reconstruction.” He wanted to leave the south with blacks having full rights; he fell well short.

Grant - the great general - could not command a civilian force. He trusted too easily, and as a result, members of his cabinet, and lower administration fellows got away with everything from financial mismanagement to outright theft. The scandals lost Grant much support in his own party. So much in fact that, though he easily won re-election in 1872, his strongest opposition came from members of his own party. Grant thought to run for a third term, but could not gain enough party support.

THE GOOD
It seems so many Americans believe that Theodore Roosevelt began the system of National Parks we enjoy today. Not so. it was Grant, who created the first park - Yellowstone National Park - bringing together federal lands in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.

He made peace with Britain over shipping rights, a simmering complaint which had been dogging the U.S. for decades. Both countries benefited from the result.

He oversaw the ratification of the 15th Amendment - voting rights.

He successfully got passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Sadly, it was declared unconstitutional by a southern, racist Supreme Court. It was a blueprint used to form the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

As a former military man, he greatly respected the rights of citizens, and was loathe to use troops to carry out federal policy. However, in South Carlina the Ku Klux Klan was working in full force and Grant abhorred their violence. Dozens of blacks were being killed every week. Grant sent in troops, and supported federal prosecutors who went after the Klan successfully.

The measure of how successfully he carried out his plan to integrate blacks, guarantee their rights, and support equality may be this: during Grant’s eight years in office, the South went from being half Republican to nearly entirely Democratic.

INTERESTING BITS

Grant did not drink nearly as much as legend has it, though he smoked up to 3 dozen cigars a day. They eventually killed him.

Grant quit the Civil War twice because he couldn’t stand the incompetence of his superiors. Each time, he was begged back, promoted and given more responsibility, until finally Abraham Lincoln stopped trying to command the war (disastrously) himself, and recognized his winner in Grant.

After failing to win yet another nomination in 1880, Grant retired to New York City, where he trusted a business partner who drove Grant into bankruptcy. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, an incredibly painful and torturous cancer, particularly in those days. Fearing he might leave his family destitute, he wrote his memoirs in ten months, and with the help of his friend Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), got them published. They were an instant hit, a huge financial seller, and today are considered to be one of the towering American achievements in literature. They are generally regarded as the finest presidential biography of all time.

Grant was the first president to win a second term and live to see it out in more than three decades, since Andrew Jackson, another general. The next president to win two terms of office and live through them was Woodrow Wilson in 1913.

Murray-Blessing ranking: #35 (!!!) I must note that this is a ranking 3 below Andrew Johnson, of all people, and can only guess the voters were drunk that day.

My score: 80%

Recommended reading:

The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant

Grant (Great Generals) by John Mosier and Wesley K. Clark