Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president. He was a Republican from Ohio and served two terms, from 1869 to 1877. He followed Andrew Johnson. Before the White House he was the Union general who won the Civil War. Robert E. Lee surrendered to him at Appomattox in 1865. At Fort Donelson he had demanded unconditional surrender, so people called him Unconditional Surrender Grant. The country chose the winning general. He had never been a governor or a senator.

His 1868 campaign motto was “Let us have peace.” As president he signed the law that created Yellowstone in 1872, the first national park of its kind. In 1870 the 15th Amendment said the right to vote could not be denied because of race. He also signed Enforcement Acts in 1870 and 1871 and used federal power to break up Ku Klux Klan terror against voters.

Some people around Grant cheated the government. The Whiskey Ring stole whiskey taxes, and Crédit Mobilier was a railroad construction scandal that broke during his presidency. Grant himself was personally honest, but he trusted friends who were not, and that hurt his reputation. After the White House he took a long world tour. Later he wrote a famous memoir while dying of cancer, so his family would have money. Mark Twain published the book.