Grant

Even though he was no longer president, Grant worried about a resurgent South. Meanwhile, responding to President Hayes’s failure to enact his promise for civil service reform, Grant’s presidency was being looked upon more fondly. Grant even decided to try to run for president a third time. Grant and Julia continued to travel, going to Florida where Grant associated with the temperance (anti-alcohol) movement. Next, Grant visited Mexico, where he went to sites he remembered from the Mexican-American War. From there, Grant toured the South, visiting Black churches and schools. He was received well by African Americans, but “many southern [sic] whites resented Grant’s presence, had not forgotten his wartime ferocity, and blamed him for Reconstruction, placing him beyond forgiveness and redemption” (895). For example, the Senate of Louisiana voted down a motion that would have officially welcomed Grant to the state.

Meanwhile, the mental health of Grant’s brother Orvil had deteriorated. He was even committed to an insane asylum in New Jersey. Orvil caused a media blitz when he appeared in Chicago on the eve of the Republican convention. He died a year later. Grant hoped that he would be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate again. However, Grant lost the bid to James A. Garfield, who did not even want to run as a candidate. Chernow argues that Grant lost because his supporters’ methods ended up splitting the vote between different candidates (903). Grant and Julia were both disappointed, with Grant thinking Garfield could not stand up against the Democrats the way Grant could. After the convention, Grant continued to travel, seeing Kansas and Colorado, which had been made a state under his administration. Afterward, Grant campaigned for Garfield in the northeast, emphasizing the attack on Black rights and the use of violence to win elections in the South. Garfield narrowly won the popular vote and did somewhat better with the electoral vote.

Grant declined to accept a position under the Garfield administration. Although Grant was at first hopeful about Garfield’s presidency, he soured when Garfield nominated several of Grant’s political enemies instead. When Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, however, Grant visited him and wished him well. Grant was devastated when Garfield died: “It must have tormented Grant that he would never have a chance to heal the breach with Garfield, and he was probably reminded of the many death threats he himself had received during his presidency” (911). The new president, Chester A. Arthur, more closely followed Grant’s advice than President Garfield.

Still, Grant lacked money. Some Wall Street financiers started a presidential retirement fund for Grant. Also, Grant hoped to make money from investing in a plan to build a railroad system for Mexico that would also connect to the United States and South America. Curiously, he even worked with Jay Gould, one of the people behind the gold price-fixing scheme. The railroad plan was plagued by problems and delays. Grant decided to find a permanent place to live. He chose New York City. At first, he could not afford a place to live until a group of admirers raised enough money for the Grants to buy a brownstone in Manhattan. Grant and his sons entered into a financial venture with a banker named Ferdinand Ward. It was in modern terms a Ponzi scheme (918), however, since “the entire working capital for Grant & Ward came from the Grants, who seemed to have a congenital weakness for confidence men” (915).

In 1883, Grant suffered a fall that either broke his hip or tore his calf muscle. He depended on crutches to get around after the injury. When Grant & Ward led to him being heavily in debt to a bank, Ward begged Grant to raise funds to keep their venture afloat. Ward’s business failed and he disappeared, leaving Grant and his sons without their life savings. William H. Vanderbilt, who had loaned Grant money to help Ward, bought the Grants’ Manhattan home and allowed them to live in it. In the meantime, though, the Grants were living in poverty.

At first, Grant refused to write a book about his life. His and Julia’s poverty after the collapse of Ward & Grant made him reconsider. Grant consented to write four articles about the Civil War for Century Magazine. Based on the success of the articles, the editors encouraged Grant to write a memoir. Meanwhile, Grant was diagnosed with throat cancer caused by his constant cigar smoking. This further motivated Grant to write a memoir. Another motivator was the fact that Grover Cleveland won the 1884 presidential election, becoming the first Democratic president since the eve of the Civil War. Along with this Democratic victory was a growing sympathy for the Confederacy and a sense that Reconstruction had been a mistake. Grant hoped to combat this narrative. He insisted on doing all the writing himself while the writer Adam Badeau would help with research. However, before Grant signed his publishing contract with Century Magazine, Mark Twain convinced Grant to sell him and the publisher Charles L. Webster the memoirs with a promise for higher royalties and joint profits. Along with the deal with Twain, the Grants’ financial situation was helped when Congress passed a bill giving Grant a pension.

Tensions grew between Grant and Badeau, who increasingly claimed that by editing the memoir he was practically its actual author and demanded more pay. Grant furiously dismissed Badeau. Twain would also later deny allegations that he ghostwrote Grant’s memoir. Chernow argues that “Grant’s lean, ironic prose was unique” (946) and the manuscript shows it was mostly written in Grant’s handwriting. During the summer of 1885, Grant went to Saratoga Springs, a resort in northern New York. At this time, Grant asked Benjamin Bristow to visit him and admitted to Bristow that he was right to try to prosecute Babcock. On the morning of July 23, 1885, not long after finishing his memoir, Grant died. In the end, Twain realized that Grant did not address his alcoholism in the memoir. It “had been too sore a point with Grant, who in his quiet, inscrutable way, carried his private thoughts on the subject to the grave” (958-59).