| Marcus Raskin's |
||
|
"
…He imbibed the spirit of freedom in copious quantities. He went
in for free lunches and free drinks from the word go. Free rum was and is
his hobby and in his estimation this is as noble a spirit of freedom as
any enfranchised moke ought to hanker after."
(The
Lively Life of U.S.G., H.U.G. and U.H.G., the Political Triplets, and
Somewhat Known to Fame as the Dummy Candidate!
New York: Patten & Hubbard, 1868.) "His
habit of intoxication, which he took on in early life, and has never given
up, was well understood. His selfish venality was equally deplored.
His ignorance of Constitutional law and the plainest principles of
our Government, had been shown…His hypocrisy and deceitfulness had been
made equally evident…"
(The
Modern Ulysses. Nelson Cross. New York: J.S. Redfield, Publisher,
1872.) "What
kind of President was he? The best judge of whiskey, cigars and horses
that ever stepped into the White House."
(The
Honest American Voter’s Little Catechism for 1880. New York: John
Polhemus, 1880.) "The
disreputable practice by the Executive head of the nation, of the habit of
constant and continual absence from his post of duty, of course renders
him utterly unfitted for that studious consideration of great public
questions which is literally imposed by the Constitution, and is therefore
a matter of serious State necessity. In the whole history of the
Government, no such flagrant disregard of the public interests and willful
contempt for public opinion have ever been exhibited by any former
Administration. The conduct of the President and of his cabinet is a shame
and a scandal."
(An Exposure of the Malversations
and Corruptions of the Executive Government and of Congress.
Washington, D.C.: National Democratic Committee, 1872.) "At
General Grant’s request, an extra box has been provided for him at the
theatre, where he could return to smoke, converse, etc. Ten years ago, a
similar announcement would have provoked indignant comment all over the
country. But we have made progress since then, especially under the
present regime, which in many important respects is modeled upon that of
Louis Napoleon."
(An Exposure of the
Malversations and Corruptions of the Executive Government and of Congress).
Washington , D.C.: National Democratic Committee, 1872.) "Ulysses
S. Grant is a theef, a liar, swindler, villain, despot and tyrant. Ef Nero
ever "Whatever
you do, don’t vote for Grant. He is an enemy to constitutional liberty,
and if elected, we will see no more of the old constitution. A despotism
will be fastened upon us; and nothing short of revolution can throw it
off, and then the power necessary to overthrow Grant will necessarily
fasten upon us another despotism."
(A Campaign Document for 1868. J.A. Stewart. Atlanta: Franklin
Printing House, 1868). "I
predicted that the election of General Grant would result in the gradual
usurpation of all the functions of the Government by the executive and by
the Congress, to be enforced by the bayonets of a military despotism… we
are now living under a military despotism… by the enactment of arbitrary
and unconstitutional laws, through a depraved majority in Congress…Caesarism
and centralization are undermining the very foundations of our federal
system."
(Speech
of Hon. August Belmont, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Official
Proceedings of the National Democratic Convention. Baltimore, July 9,
1872. Boston: Rockwell &Churchill Printers, 1872.) "General
Grant’s renomination was an insult to the American people. A Convention
prepared by his parasites and hirelings, assembled in Philadelphia, and
declared that they represented the people of the whole country; and
without a dissenting voice they proclaimed that he was the choice of the
people for the office, which he has brought into utter contempt. No
Imperial Caesar ever committed a more arrogant act; nor one which showed
less respect for the intelligence of the people." (One
Hundred Reasons Why General
Grant Should not be Re-elected President of the United States.
J. C. Thompson. Philadelphia: Published by the Author, 1872.) "The
President is not partial to the cares of government. The Presidency was in
his opinion not given to him that he should overwork himself. No sooner
does Congress adjourn than he is off for Long Branch, as a boy is eager to
escape from his schoolroom. He decidedly prefers the delights of a
horserace to the tedious work of a Cabinet meeting. The secretaries,
inspired by his example, run away also, and so we hear from time to time
that the administration is out of town. I have actually seen foreign
ministers in the Capitol of the nation looking for the Government of the
United States as for a lost child or a horse strayed or stolen. It is the
closest approach to the habits of royal courts this country has ever
witnessed..." (Speech
of Hon. Carl Schurz of Missouri.
“A Masterly Review of the Career of the Present Administration.”
Published by the National Democratic Executive
Resident Committee, Washington, D.C.) "With
his insane conceit, his challenges hurled at the Congress of a great
people, with his speeches, savoring less of wisdom that of whisky[sic] –
his total abnegation of his duty to you, to himself and to the nation,
over which he was summoned by accident to preside, and with his forfeiture
of all claims either as a gentleman, a statesman or even a Union man, he
has confronted the people of the North face to face, and so outraged,
disgusted and exasperated as to have damned himself forever." (Speech
of Hon. J.R.G. Pitkin of New Orleans. Wilmington Institute, Delaware.) Quotes compiled by Sushila Nayak. Thanks to Brooke Roundy for her transcription help. |
Ulysses
S. Grant In a more judgmental time such as our own, or in a time when the very existence of our nation was not in doubt as it was in the Civil War, when a beleaguered president looked for help from any quarter to save the union, it is inconceivable that Grant would have risen to be commander of the Union forces and then president. In our time, Ulysses S. Grant would have been written off as a failure, an alcoholic and a misfit, yet Lincoln chose him as commander of the Union armies when he fired General George McClellan in August 1864. Grant's star of success depended on extreme crisis. As a man of 39 at the beginning of the Civil War, his family had written him off as one of life's losers. Historians have claimed that he was dependent on his brothers, who had given him a job running a store in Galena, Illinois for what then was then a decent living wage, fifty dollars a month. But through the appearance of failure there was also another side to Grant which had shown itself in various settings. He was a brilliant military and diplomatic strategist. And indeed, as president he understood the plight of the freed slaves and, up to a point, supported their cause in league with the Radical Republicans of Congress after the civil war. As a young man, Grant graduated from West Point and served as a lieutenant in the Mexican war with skill and courage, according to his commander, General Zachary Taylor. Nevertheless, he rejected this calling when his commanding officer insisted he choose between bouts of drunkenness and the army. Lincoln noticed Grant early in the Civil War. Grant distinguished himself in a clever military move by occupying Paducah, Kentucky, in September 1861, thus giving the Union forces control over Kentucky. Without his deft maneuvers, Kentucky might have gone over to the confederacy. Grant further distinguished himself as the effective commander of the Western front in the battles which he and his men fought in Tennessee, at Shiloh and at Vicksburg in Mississippi. As commander of the army, Grant rejected McClellan's cautionary mode of fighting the Southern armies. McClellan favored holding on and winning strategic positions in what might be described as a stalemate and containment exercise, and thus became the darling of the Democratic party in the North. After his dismissal, he ran against Lincoln in 1864 hoping to arrange a negotiated settlement with the South. Grant's military strategy was quite different. He was aggressive and proceeded to discard the idea of a war of attrition and rather pursued the strategy of "search and destroy," which he had his senior generals, Sherman and Meade carry out with great success in Virginia and Georgia. For all his aggressive military moves as General, Grant was a remarkably passive president. Having been nominated by the Republicans in 1868 he turned out to be putty in the hands of the Senate and an emerging group of powerful businessmen in the Republican party who saw the office of the presidency, and President Grant, as an instrument for their own commercial purposes. The congressional leadership was interested in cutting down the office of the president so that it had little but ceremonial power. As a seduction and a means of politically bribing Grant, Congress doubled Grant's salary to 50,000 a year and appropriated funds to refurbish the White House, the grounds and riding stables. It is likely that the doubling of Grant's salary during his term was unconstitutional. An old battle raged. What were the powers of the president? Not surprisingly, Congress viewed itself as the first branch with the president merely an implementer of the congressional will, meaning of course, its senior and most vociferous members. Perhaps more importantly, congressional members after the civil war sought to carry out a revolution in Southern society, changing the place of Negroes in its pecking order as the price for the white South having left the Union. Grant favored some attempts to remake Southern society, although he held Southern opponents such as Robert E. Lee in high regard. On the other hand, he knew that he would also have to battle those in the South like confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former slave trader who initiated and then institutionalized the terror against former slaves and their supporters through such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan. Grant believed and sought to enforce the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, in effect claiming that the success of the United States and the fundamental outcome of the civil war was based on the transformation of the South. The enforcement of rights for four million ex-slaves who were to be admitted into the American body politic and enfranchised remained a puzzling problem to him. At one point he toyed with the idea of settling former slaves in Santa Domingo while developing that nation through capitalist expansion. To get an elementary level of civil order in the South and protection of former slaves and their supporters, he continued to have some union troops in the South. This ended with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes, who pulled out the remaining 6000 federal troops from the South, effectively ending Federal protection for Southern Blacks for over 75 years. Grant's problems as president were also related to the new breed of entrepreneur. Grant's father was a small businessman, a tanner. But that was not the breed of businessman that came to the foreground in the Republican party after the Civil War. Grant had turned to capitalists who were his cronies who knew the importance of government aid. The business buccaneers were only too happy to give advice and counsel about policy and personnel. Schemers and crooks were thought of as business titans as they plundered the West. They understood politics and government as an extension of business schemes revolving around whiskey and railroads as well as land and resource grabs. Grant found himself surrounded in office by the corrupt and the incompetent. Indeed, he seemed to go out of his way to appoint such people to his administration. Nevertheless, he won re-election proving, according to anti-Grant forces, that corruption and incompetence may not be a bar to high office. It should be noted in his defense that Grant was charged only with being a poor judge of men, but never corrupt. Whether this is accurate, one cannot really know. But there is no doubt that he organized brilliantly millions of men for war, and that he sought to bring a just peace which he hoped would not oppress further the most deprived and suffering. After his presidency, Grant visited and was feted in Japan where he urged the Japanese to play a world role and not to fear outsiders. He praised Japanese attempts at modernization and, most importantly, took an uncommonly enlightened attitude toward Asia, specifically Japan and China, at a time when Europe went out of its way to degrade both. As Grant put it, "It seems incredible that rights which at home we regard as essential to our independence and to our national existence, which no nation, no matter how small, would surrender, are denied to China and Japan." Grant continued to have a hold on the Republican party and it appeared that he would make a successful bid for a comeback third term. But he lost the nomination to James Garfield. Grant died of cancer in 1885, shortly after he completed his Memoirs which are praised today as an American classic. |
|