Welcome to our collection of quotes by Ulysses S. Grant.
Wikipedia Summary for Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; HY-rəm yoo-LIS-eez; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American military leader who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As president, Grant was an effective civil rights executive who created the Justice Department and worked with the Radical Republicans to protect African Americans during Reconstruction. Still, federal departments under Grant were rife with scandal as he struggled to detect corruption among his appointees. As Commanding General, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as Secretary of War.
Raised in Ohio, Grant possessed an exceptional ability with horses, which served him well through his military career. He was admitted to West Point, graduated 21st in the class of 1843 and served with distinction in the Mexican–American War. In 1848, he married Julia Dent, and together they had four children. Grant abruptly resigned his army commission in 1854 and returned to his family, but lived in poverty for seven years. He joined the Union Army after the Civil War broke out in 1861 and rose to prominence after winning several early Union victories on the Western Theater. In 1863 he led the Vicksburg campaign, which gained control of the Mississippi River. President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general after his victory at Chattanooga. For thirteen months, Grant fought Robert E. Lee during the high-casualty Overland Campaign and at Petersburg. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. A week later, Lincoln was assassinated and was succeeded by President Andrew Johnson, who promoted Grant to General of the Army in 1866. Later Grant openly broke with Johnson over Reconstruction policies; Grant used the Reconstruction Acts, which had been passed over Johnson's veto, to enforce civil rights for recently freed African Americans.
A war hero, drawn in by his sense of duty, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican Party and was elected president in 1868. As president, Grant stabilized the post-war national economy, supported ratification of the 15th Amendment, and crushed the Ku Klux Klan. He appointed African Americans and Jewish Americans to prominent federal offices. In 1871, to help reduce federal patronage, Grant created the first Civil Service Commission. The Liberal Republicans and Democrats united behind Grant's opponent in the presidential election of 1872, but Grant was handily re-elected. Grant's Native American policy was to assimilate Indians into the White culture; the Great Sioux War was fought during his term. In Grant's foreign policy, the Alabama claims against Great Britain were peacefully resolved, but his prized Caribbean Dominican Republic annexation was rejected by the Senate. Grant's responses to federal corruption charges were mixed, at times defending culprits, but Grant also appointed cabinet reformers, for example, for the prosecution of the Whiskey Ring. The Panic of 1873 plunged the nation into a severe economic depression that allowed the Democrats to win the House majority. In the intensely disputed presidential election of 1876, Grant facilitated the approval by Congress of a peaceful compromise.
In his retirement, Grant was the first president to circumnavigate the world on his tour, meeting with many foreign leaders. In 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for a third term. In the final year of his life, facing severe financial reversals and dying of throat cancer, he wrote his memoirs, which proved to be a major critical and financial success. At the time of his death, he was memorialized as a symbol of national unity. Militarily evaluated, Grant was a modern general and "a skillful leader who had a natural grasp of tactics and strategy." Historical assessments of his presidency have improved over time; he was ranked 38th in 1994 and 1996 but ranked 21st in 2018. Although critical of scandals and Grant's loyal defense of culprits, modern historians have emphasized his two-term presidential accomplishments. These included his protection of African American civil rights, prosecution of the Klan, innovative Native American policy, and the settlement of the Alabama claims.
I have nothing to do with opinions. I deal only with armed rebellion and its aiders and abettors.
My family is American, and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral.
The long-continued and useful public service and eminent purity of character of the deceased ex-President will be remembered.
But my later experience has taught me two lessons: first, that things are seen plainer after the events have occurred; second, that the most confident critics are generally those who know the least about the matter criticised.
Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true.
In politics I am growing indifferent -- I would like it, if I could now return to my planting and books at home.
I believe that our Great Maker is preparing the world, in His own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies will be no longer required.
I never knew what to do with a paper except to put it in a side pocket or pass it to a clerk who understood it better than I did.
I leave comparisons to history, claiming only that I have acted in every instance from a conscientious desire to do what was right, constitutional, within the law, and for the very best interests of the whole people. Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent.
It does look like a very good exercise. But what is the little white ball for?
I don't underrate the value of military knowledge, but if men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.
Quit thinking about what Bobby Lee's gonna do to us and start thinking about what we're going to do to him.
I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.
If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.
I never was an Abolitionest, not even what could be called anti slavery, but I try to judge farely and honestly and it become patent to my mind early in the rebellion that the North and South could never live at peace with each other except as one nation, and that without Slavery.
There are many men who would have done better than I did under the circumstances in which I found myself. If I had never held command, if I had fallen, there were 10,000 behind who would have followed the contest to the end and never surrendered the Union.
The one thing I never want to see again is a military parade. When I resigned from the army and went to a farm I was happy. When the rebellion came, I returned to the service because it was a duty. I had no thought of rank; all I did was try and make.
All secret oath-bound political parties are dangerous to any nation, no matter how pure or how patriotic the motives and principles which first bring them together.
It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may expect the most efficient service.
Anything is better than indecision. We must decide. If I am wrong, we shall soon find out and can do the other thing. But not to decide wastes both time and money and may ruin everything.
The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of oppression, if they are strong enough, whether by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.
Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives.
There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter and, I trust, the stronger party.
Our great modern Republic. May those who seek the blessings of its institutions and the protection of its flag remember the obligations they impose.
I would suggest the taxation of all property equally whether church or corporation.
There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice.
If you see the President, tell him from me that whatever happens there will be no turning back.
If men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.
Longer Version:
If men make war in slavish observance of rules, they will fail. No rules will apply to conditions of war as different as those which exist in Europe and America...War is progressive, because all the instruments and elements of war are progressive.
There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword.
Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.
Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.
Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor.
It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training.
The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.
