The Parallel Lives

Ulysses S. Grant was first elected President in 1868, as a Republican, from the state of Illinois. According to an old college history textbook, “Grant’s military triumphs during the Civil War did nothing to prepare him for the Presidency. 

     “He was probably the least experienced and most naive citizen ever to hold that position. He chose his advisers based upon their loyalty to him, rather than for their administrative ability. His choices for his Cabinet officers were disastrous.

     “His White House staff was dominated by old army friends who had no political experience.”

     In addition, Grant “did not grasp the the potential of the great office which the voters had bestowed upon him.” Instead, “he believed that Congress should make all the decisions, because they represented the people’s will. A president should only execute the will of Congress.”

     Right away, those close to Grant understood that he would look the other way when well-healed businessmen came calling to bribe politicians throughout his Federal Government, heaping bags of money and favors upon them. 

     “By Grant’s negligence in office, he allowed a general moral laxity to flourish.”

     As Grant’s first term drew to a close, a group of Republicans, who were disappointed with the corruption that swirled around this President, formed a new political party, calling themselves the Liberal Republicans. They only agreed on one issue, their disgust for Ulysses S. Grant. 

     The Liberal Republicans chose for their Presidential candidate Horace Greeley, a long-time New York City newspaper editor, but an eccentric who applauded any and all types of reform.

      “He committed himself, all at once, to utopian and artisan socialism, to land and dietary reform, and to anti-slavery.” Of Greeley, Grant said, “He is a genius without common sense.”

     The Democrats decided to join the Liberal Republicans and endorse Greeley as their candidate also, even though he was a Republican, because they were most anxious to see Grant unseated and driven out of the White House.

     Despite the corruption inside his administration, Grant remained popular among voters.

     Then, tragedy struck the Horace Greeley family. His wife Mary returned from Europe in late June of 1872, feeling poorly. Greeley gave up speaking and appealing to voters, to instead care for Mary, but then she passed away on October 30, five days before the election. 

     Greeley’s campaign for President for a new political party sputtered to a stop.

     On November 5, 1872, Grant won the popular vote, 3,595,235 to Greeley’s 2,834,761, which meant that Grant would receive 286 electoral votes to Greeley’s 66.

     However, before the Electoral College could meet and count those ballots, Horace Greeley also passed away, on November 29. 

     Forty-two of his 66 electoral votes went to Thomas Hendricks, a Democrat from Indiana, 18 went to Benjamin Brown, and Horace Greeley retained 3, although he was deceased. The Liberal Republican Party succumbed to defeat and ceased to exist. 

     Grant served another four years as President, but instances of corruption continued. 

     The worst was the Credit Mobilier scandal. It was a construction company that assisted in building the transcontinental railroad. Company officials gave away its stock to Congressmen and officials as a bribe to stop them from investigating their company’s business transactions.

     A footnote to this history. On November 5, 1872, a women’s rights advocate named Susan B. Anthony walked into a voting precinct and cast her vote for Ulysses S. Grant. Two weeks later, officials arrested Anthony, and fined her $100 for voting illegally, because of her gender. 

     She explained her position, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.” She never did. By the 19th Amendment, adopted in 1920, women received the right to vote, and more than 8 million women voted in the 1920 election, 48 years after Susan B. Anthony voted for Greeley.