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Ulysses S. Grant Essay

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Ulysses S. Grant lived an interesting life. He gave so much to this country. His life was

exciting and he lived in many different places, from small houses to a house given by people to

the white house. From saving the blacks from more slavery to giving the U.S. bad years from

presidency.

Ulysses S. Grant was an American general and the 18th president of the U.S.

(Williams 53).Grant was born in point pleasant, Ohio, on April 27 ,1822, the son os Hannah

Simpson and Jesse Grant, the owner of a tannery (Williams 52). In 1839, under the name of

Ulysses Simpson, instead of his original Hiram Ulysses, he was appointed to West Point

(“Ulysses”Online). Graduating 21st in a class of 39,loosing to Robert …show more content…

As the country's best known military leader, he became the Republican candidate for

president in 1868 and defeated his democratic rival, Horatio Seymour (Williams 53). Grants

military experience ill prepared him for his new duties, he faced major problems with

Reconstruction, civil service reform, and economic adjustment, he did not know how to choose

proper advisors or to avoid the pitfalls of an age of corruption (Williams 57). Irregularly trying to

protect the tights of the freed slaves, he repeatedly intervened but could no prevent the

reappearance of white supremacists in all but a few southern states (“Ulysses”Online).

Other problems were equally troublesome, in 1871 Grant appointed a civil service

commission headed by George W. Curtis, but because of the president's increased trust in corrupt

republican machines, he was ill fitted to end the system of whereby federal jobs were distributed

as rewards for political loyalty (“Ulysses”Online). More over his inexperience in economic

matters and his unreasonable respect for wealth rendered him easy prey to scheming adventures,

In 1869 Jay Gould and James Fisk took him in, in their attempt to corner the gold market, which he stopped only at the last moment (“Ulysses”Online). In 1872 rebel reformers, breaking with

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