Top Presidents Ranked pt. 3 - Indomitable in Purpose

Nowhere does my personal list of top five U.S. presidents depart more starkly from the conventional list than here at the third spot (read parts one and two of this series here). Nevertheless, today’s subject has recently enjoyed what one writer called a “reputational revival,” scaling the ranks as historians reassess his crucial Reconstruction-era presidency.

I am referring, of course, to Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States.

In his life, the Civil War hero and president experienced a “meteoric rise from obscurity,” surpassing even that of Lincoln. As of late, his reputation has done the same. Once ranked consistently among the nation’s worst presidents, a man derided for drunkenness, incompetence, and corruption (all you probably remember learning about his presidency in history class was that “Grantism” became a popular synonym for corruption, due to his administration’s signature sleaze), Grant stood at 33rd place in overall presidential rankings at the dawn of the century. As of 2021, he had surged to 20th place, marking better improvement than any other president in that time.

What led to this remarkable resurgence? How did Grant, held in high regard at the time of his death, experience such a precipitous fall in reputation, only to be resurrected in the twenty-first century? What long-overlooked aspects of his presidency have historians now unearthed, reshaping our understanding of this misunderstood figure?

SEE ALSO: Top Presidents Ranked pt. 1

Looking back to his death on July 23, 1885, in New York, it's evident that Grant died an admired man. Although his rhetoric as president, unlike Lincoln’s, rarely had been memorable or poetic, the rhetoric surrounding his passing certainly was. 

Grant was, Frederick Douglass described in a poignant eulogy, “A man too broad for prejudice, too humane to despise the humblest, too great to be small at any point. In him the Negro found a protector, the Indian a friend, a vanquished foe a brother, an imperiled nation a savior.” These words not only encapsulate Grant's personal greatness but also highlight the significance of his presidency.

The New York Times, in announcing the former president’s death, described his life as “a story thrilling to every patriot, instructive to every observer of these times, and helpful to citizens in every station and of all beliefs who wish their country well–this man, humbly born… conquers a place among the great ones of the earth, restores unity to a divided people, and dies a plain American citizen, lamented alike by grateful countrymen, loyal comrades, and admiring foes.”

The paper predicted that henceforth, “if a great soldier is indomitable in purpose and exhaustless in courage, endurance, and equanimity; if he is free from vanity and pettiness, if he is unpretentious, truthful, frank, constant, generous to friends, magnanimous to foes, and patriotic to the core, of him it will be said, ‘He is like Grant.’”

As indicated by both Douglass and the Times, even his enemies admired him: “I have carefully searched the military records of both ancient and modern history, and have never found Grant's superior as a general,” Robert E. Lee reportedly confessed. “I doubt that his superior can be found in all history.”

Alexander H. Stephens, Confederate vice president, was no less glowing in his praise: “I was instantly struck with the great simplicity and perfect naturalness of his manners, and the entire absence of everything like affectation, show, or even the usual military air or mien of men in his position…. The more I became acquainted with him, the more I became thoroughly impressed with the very extraordinary combination of rare elements of character which he exhibited…. he was one of the most remarkable men I had ever met….”

SEE ALSO: Top Presidents Ranked - The Man in the Arena

Undoubtedly, in 1885, popular sentiment assumed that Grant, despite an imperfect record, would be remembered among the greats. Indeed, many presumed that Lincoln and Grant would stand shoulder to shoulder forevermore in the nation’s memory.

According to President William McKinley, for example, “two names rise above all the rest in American history since George Washington—transcendently above them [emphasis added]. They are Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant…. We are not a Nation of hero worshipers. We are a Nation of generous freemen. We bow in affectionate reverence and with most grateful hearts to these immortal names, Washington, Lincoln, and Grant, and will guard with sleepless vigilance their mighty work and cherish their memories evermore.”

Indeed, Frederick Douglass believed that “To Grant more than any other man, the Negro owes his enfranchisement.”

“Abraham Lincoln made [the Negro] a free man,” he said, “and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant made him a citizen.”

Some may object that these words reflect a certain biased fondness for Grant due to his wartime service but do not accurately represent his presidency. This is not necessarily true. Although Grant was hugely popular because of his Civil War victories and magnanimity at Appomattox, his post-war service to the nation, although often forgotten today, was no less significant.

Largely lost to history is the fact that during Reconstruction, Southern lawlessness and terror became so pervasive many feared that the nation would fall back into civil war, one arguably worse than the first. For President Grant, the threat that everything he fought for on the battlefield would be reversed, brutally undone at the hands of anarchic, racist forces, was ever-present. It fell on him, as chief executive, to certify the results of the nation's bloodiest, hard-fought war, while also preventing another. It was, as it were, his task, inherited from Lincoln, to ensure that the nation’s honored dead did not die in vain.

Doing so was easier said than done. It entailed quelling the Ku Klux Klan and other anti-black terror groups, which many Southern states and Grant’s inglorious predecessor, Andrew Johnson, largely neglected. At the same time, Grant had to navigate the delicate balance between suppressing domestic terrorism and avoiding the perception of unpopular Northern military occupation. Grant’s choices were clear: if he allowed the KKK to run amok, suppressing and slaughtering African American voters, freedom for former slaves would be effectively annulled—Lincoln’s dream of equality for all negated. On the other hand, he could only push so hard before a wounded but nagging Confederate spirit revived and turned on its conqueror.

Veteran Jesse Ames, writing to his son Adelbert Ames, who served as the Reconstruction-era governor of Mississippi, emphasized the precariousness of Grant's position: “If [President Grant cannot suppress white supremacy],” he wrote, “there can be nothing but a reign of terror in the South until the nation is involved in a Civil War from one end of the land to the other of which the last war is a mere trifle compared to it.”

It was into this unmanageable crisis that President Ulysses S. Grant was thrust, and to the best of his abilities, he trekked unnavigable waters—with an often unforgiving nation—for eight unenjoyable years. Although his successes during this time are frequently overlooked, it's certain that history would have remembered his presidency quite differently if he had failed. In summary, Grant accomplished the impossible: he prevented a return to war and advanced equality for black Americans. Albeit imperfectly. Albeit beset by Gilded Age corruption (historians agree that Grant himself was not corrupt, but his political naivety often enabled unsavory characters to exploit him). But despite his many faults, he did more for the Union than we perhaps have ever given him credit for.

To this day, misconceptions about our 18th president persist. As Frederick Douglass noted in his lifetime, there are those who question the sincerity of Grant’s motives and friendship with the black community, for example. However, Douglass would have none of it: “I must declare,” he said, “that President Grant's course, from the time he drew the sword in defense of the old Union in the Valley of the Mississippi till he sheathed it at Appomattox, and thence to this day in his reconstruction policy and his war upon the Ku-Klux, is without a deed or word to justify such an accusation.”