GRANT 



2r>69 



GRANT 



into closer touch" with the Republicans in Con- 

 gress. He was, moreover, in general accord 

 with the Republicans on the tariff, the national 

 banking system and internal improvements. 

 He was unanimously nominated by the Repub- 



lican convention on the first ballot, and was 

 elected by the large majority of 214 electoral 

 votes to eighty for Horatio Seymour, the 

 Democratic candidate. (See map below, for 

 party division of states.) 



Grant, the President 



His Administration (1869-1877). When Grant 

 took office as the eighteenth President, he 

 fell heir to a reconstruction policy only partly 

 carried out (see RECONSTRUCTION). The Fif- 

 teenth Amendment to the Constitution, which 

 guaranteed the right of suffrage without regard 

 to "race, color or previous condition of servi- 

 tude," was passed by Congress before Grant 

 became President. It had his active support, 



Federal troops to support the Republican can- 

 didate. In these instances many people felt 

 that the President had acted with unnecessary 

 harshness. In May, 1872, the reconstruction 

 policy, so odious to the South, was modified by 

 the passage of the Amnesty Act, restoring civil 

 rights to all but about 300 persons in the 

 South; this marked the beginning of the end 

 of "carpet-bag" rule (see CARPETBAGGERS). 



1868 GRANT'S TWO ELECTIONS 1872 



The shaded states are those that gave their electoral votes to Grant ; the black-colored states sup- 

 ported the Democratic ticket ; the white areas represent non-voting territories. In the election of 1868 

 Virginia, Mississippi and Texas (starred on the above map) did not participate in the Presidential 

 election, for until 1870 they did not comply with Federal requirements which had been Imposed upon 

 the states of the former Confederacy. 



however, from the beginning, and when it was 

 ratified and declared in force, March 30, 1870, 

 he declared that it was "a measure of grander 

 importance than any other one act of the kind 

 from the foundation of the government to the 

 present day." Meanwhile, reconstruction was 

 not proceeding satisfactorily, and conflicts be- 

 tween the negroes and their late masters be- 

 came, so frequent and violent that Congress, 

 at the President's request, passed the Force 

 Acts, which authorized the President to sus- 

 pend the writ of habeas corpus in any district 

 and to declare martial law. When repeated 

 warnings did not bring about the desired re- 

 sults, Grant used these extraordinary powers 

 in parts of North and South Carolina, and even 

 instituted prosecutions against several promi- 

 nent offenders, with the result that a measure 

 of quiet was restored. 



The President also intervened in a number 

 of contested elections in the South and sent 



Vigorous Foreign Policy. During the elec- 

 tion campaign Grant had given little indication 

 of the policies he would pursue if elected, but 

 he had the confidence of the public, which was 

 increased by the speedy negotiation of the 

 Treaty of Washington and the settlement of 

 the Alabama Claims (see WASHINGTON, Treaty 

 of; ALABAMA, The). In one respect, however, 

 the President's policy failed to meet general 

 approval. In 1869 the government of Santo 

 Domingo sought annexation to the United 

 States. Grant was heartily in favor of this 

 step, and tried for several years to bring it 

 about, but the United States Senate finally 

 refused to approve the treaty of annexation. 

 In another West Indian island, Cuba, an insur- 

 rection had been going on for several years, 

 and American citizens and ships in Cuban ter- 

 ritory had occasionally been detained by the 

 Spanish authorities on the pretense that they 

 were aiding the insurgents. The climax of 



