GRANT, ULYSSES S. (His CIVIL CAREER.) 



435 



influence of his administration. The amend- 

 ment was opposed by the Democratic party, 

 generally, and a considerable body of Repub- 

 licans questioned its wisdom. Gen. Grant was 

 responsible for the ratification of the amend- 

 ment. Had he advised its rejection, or had 

 he been indifferent to its fate, the amendment 

 would have failed, and the country would have 

 been left to a succession of bitter controversies 

 arising from the application of the second sec- 

 tion of the fourteenth amendment, in those 

 States that should deny the elective franchise 

 to any portion of the male citizens over twenty- 

 one years of age, except for the causes specified 

 in said section. 



Gen. Grant accepted the plan of Congress in 

 regard to the reconstruction of the Union. 

 There were three opinions that had obtained a 

 lodgment in the public mind. President John- 

 son and his supporters claimed that the Presi- 

 dent held the power by virtue of his office to 

 convene the people of the respective States, and 

 that under his direction constitutions might 

 be framed, and Senators and Representatives 

 might be chosen who would be entitled to seats 

 in Congress as though they represented States 

 that had not been engaged in secession and 

 war. Others maintained that neither by the 

 ordinances of secession nor by the war had the 

 States of the Confederacy been disturbed in 

 their legal relations to the Union. It was 

 the theory of the Republican party in Con- 

 gress that the eleven States by their own acts 

 had destroyed their legal relations to the 

 Union ; that the jurisdiction of the national 

 Government over the territory of the seceding 

 States was full and complete ; and that, as a re- 

 sult of the war, the national Government could 

 hold them in a territorial condition and sub- 

 ject to military rule. Upon this theory the 

 reappearance of a seceded State as a member 

 of the Union was made to depend upon the as- 

 sent of Congress, with the approval of the Presi- 

 dent, or upon an act of Congress by a vote of 

 two thirds over a presidential veto. 



Gen. Grant sustained the policy of Congress 

 during tlie long and bitter contest with Presi- 

 dent Johnson, and when he became President 

 he accepted that policy without reserve in the 

 case of the restoration of the States of Virgin- 

 ia, Georgia, Texas, and Mississippi. Upon this 

 statement it appears that Gen. Grant was a Re- 

 publican, and that he became a Republican by 

 processes that preclude the suggestion that his 

 nomination for the presidency wrought any 

 change in his position upon questions of prin- 

 ciple or policy in the affairs of Government. 

 Indeed, his nomination in 1868 was distasteful 

 to him, as he then preferred to remain at the 

 head of the army. It was in the nature ot 

 things, however, that he should have wished 

 for a re-election. He was re-elected, and at 

 the end of his second term he accepted a re- 

 turn to private life as a relief from the cares 

 and duties of office. The support which he 

 received for the nomination in 1880 was not 



due to any effort on his part. Not even to his 

 warmest supporters did he express a wish, or 

 dictate or advise an act. His only utterance 

 was a message to four of his friends at the Chi- 

 cago Convention, that whatever they might do 

 in the premises would be acceptable to him. 

 His political career was marked by the same 

 abstention from personal effort for personal 

 advancement that distinguished him as an offi- 

 cer of the arrny. But he did not bring into 

 civil affairs the habits of command that were 

 the necessity of military life. Although by 

 virtue of his position he was the recognized 

 head of the Republican party, he made no effort 

 to control its action. Wherever he placed 

 power, there he reposed trust. There was 

 not in Gen. Grant's nature any element of 

 suspicion, and his confidence in his friends was 

 free and full. Hence it happened that he had 

 many occasions for regret. Against Gen. Grant 

 there were frequent charges and insinuations 

 of wrong-doing, but in this generation there 

 has been no man in public life who was freer 

 from all occasion for such insinuations and 

 charges. When he heard that the Treasury 

 Department was purchasing bullion of a com- 

 pany in which he was a stockholder, he sold 

 his shares without delay, and without reference 

 to the market price or to their real value. 



On the Thursday preceding Black Friday 

 the speculators in gold had carried the price so 

 high that the business of the custom-houses 

 was paralyzed. That afternoon I called upon 

 the President, and, after informing him of the 

 state of the gold market and its effect upon i 

 the customs receipts, I said, U I propose to '' 

 sell gold to-morrow and end the trouble." 

 Said the President, "How much will you need 

 to sell ? " I replied, " Three million will be 

 sufficient." "You had better advertise five 

 million and not make a failure," said he. With- 

 out then deciding the point, I offered four mill- 

 ion, which proved quite adequate. 



Gen. Grant had no disposition to usurp pow- 

 er. He had no policy to impose upon the 

 country against the popular will. This was 

 shown in the treatment of the Santo Domingo 

 question. Gen. Grant was not indisposed to 

 see the territory of the republic extended, but 

 his love of justice and fair dealing was such 

 that he would have used only honorable means 

 in his intercourse with other nations. Santo 

 Domingo was a free offering, and he thought 

 that its possession would be advantageous to 

 the country. Yet he never made it an issue, 

 even in his Cabinet, where, as he well knew, 

 very serious doubts existed as to the expediency 

 of the measure. He was deeply pained by the 

 unjust attacks and groundless criticisms of 

 which he was the subject, but he accepted the 

 adverse judgment of the Senate as a constitu- 

 tional binding decision of the question, and of 

 that decision he never complained. 



In a message to the Senate of the 31st of 

 May, 1870, he urged the annexation of Santo 

 Domingo. He said, " I feel an unusual anxiety 



