Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: Ulysses Grant and Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was better known as Mark Twain. He was a 19th century author and humorist, famous for works such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He also befriended President Ulysses Grant and played an important role in the publication of Grant's best-selling memoirs.
After finishing his second term in office in 1877, Grant and his wife Julia took a trip around the world. The voyage left Grant short on money. Grant ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1880, but lost to James Garfield. The next year, Grant moved to New York City to go into business with his son, Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., and a young investor, Ferdinand Ward. The firm of Grant & Ward did well at first, due to Ward's skills and Grant's name. Grant bragged to friends that he was worth two and a half million dollars, and family members and friends poured money into the firm. But Grant was largely disengaged from the company's business, often signing papers without reading them. This proved disastrous, as Ward had used the firm as a Ponzi scheme, taking investors' money and spending it on personal items, including a mansion in Connecticut and a brownstone in New York City. Grant & Ward suffered an economic failure in May 1884, leaving Grant broke.
In the fall of 1884, Grant was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer. Twain and Grant had struck up a friendship and Twain came up with an idea to help his friend out of his financial difficulties. Twain proposed a publishing deal with Grant and the ex-president began working on his memoirs.
Writing the memoirs was very difficult for Grant because he suffered a great deal of pain in his final year from his illness. He complained of feeling like he was choking. Despite his condition, he wrote at a prolific pace, sometimes writing 25 to 50 pages a day. In June 1885, as the cancer spread through his body, the family moved to Mount MacGregor, New York, to make Grant more comfortable. Propped up on chairs, and too weak to walk, Grant struggled to finish the book. Friends, admirers and even a few former Confederate opponents made their way to Mount MacGregor to pay their respects. Grant finished the manuscript on July 18. He died five days later.
The Memoirs focused on Grant's military career: his service in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. It did not cover the period of his presidency. Critics have praised the book for its conciseness and clarity. In the book, Grant wrote that he believed that the Mexican War was an unjust war. He wrote:
"Generally, the officers of the army were indifferent whether the annexation was consummated or not; but not so all of them. For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory."
Grant states in his concluding chapter that he favored giving African-Americans the vote. The final chapter is a reflection on the war and its effects, and the reconciliation of North and South. In the final paragraphs, Grant makes note of his own condition and expresses optimism that "Federal and Confederate" can live together. He writes:
"I am not egotist enough to suppose all this significance should be given because I was the object of it. But the war between the States was a very bloody and a very costly war. One side or the other had to yield principles they deemed dearer than life before it could be brought to an end. I commanded the whole of the mighty host engaged on the victorious side. I was, no matter whether deservedly so or not, a representative of that side of the controversy. It is a significant and gratifying fact that Confederates should have joined heartily in this spontaneous move. I hope the good feeling inaugurated may continue to the end."
Grant's struggle to finish his memoirs before his death gained a lot of notoriety in the press. On release, the book received universal critical praise. Mark Twain wrote:
"I had been comparing the memoirs with Caesar's Commentaries... I was able to say in all Apologetic forms that the same high merits distinguished both books - clarity of statement, directness, simplicity, manifest truthfulness, fairness and justice toward friend and foe alike and avoidance of flowery speech. General Grant was just a man, just a human being, just an author...The fact remains and cannot be dislodged that General Grant's book is a great, unique and unapproachable literary masterpiece. There is no higher literature than these modest, simple Memoirs. Their style is at least flawless, and no man can improve upon it."
Gertrude Stein also admired the book, saying she could not think of Grant without weeping. The Memoirs quickly became a best seller. The Grant family, who received 75 percent of the royalties, made approximately $450,000 (greater than $10 million in 2009 dollars) from the book. Julia Grant was able to pay off all of her husband's debts and it provided financial security for her and her family.
After finishing his second term in office in 1877, Grant and his wife Julia took a trip around the world. The voyage left Grant short on money. Grant ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1880, but lost to James Garfield. The next year, Grant moved to New York City to go into business with his son, Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., and a young investor, Ferdinand Ward. The firm of Grant & Ward did well at first, due to Ward's skills and Grant's name. Grant bragged to friends that he was worth two and a half million dollars, and family members and friends poured money into the firm. But Grant was largely disengaged from the company's business, often signing papers without reading them. This proved disastrous, as Ward had used the firm as a Ponzi scheme, taking investors' money and spending it on personal items, including a mansion in Connecticut and a brownstone in New York City. Grant & Ward suffered an economic failure in May 1884, leaving Grant broke.
In the fall of 1884, Grant was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer. Twain and Grant had struck up a friendship and Twain came up with an idea to help his friend out of his financial difficulties. Twain proposed a publishing deal with Grant and the ex-president began working on his memoirs.
Writing the memoirs was very difficult for Grant because he suffered a great deal of pain in his final year from his illness. He complained of feeling like he was choking. Despite his condition, he wrote at a prolific pace, sometimes writing 25 to 50 pages a day. In June 1885, as the cancer spread through his body, the family moved to Mount MacGregor, New York, to make Grant more comfortable. Propped up on chairs, and too weak to walk, Grant struggled to finish the book. Friends, admirers and even a few former Confederate opponents made their way to Mount MacGregor to pay their respects. Grant finished the manuscript on July 18. He died five days later.
The Memoirs focused on Grant's military career: his service in the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. It did not cover the period of his presidency. Critics have praised the book for its conciseness and clarity. In the book, Grant wrote that he believed that the Mexican War was an unjust war. He wrote:
"Generally, the officers of the army were indifferent whether the annexation was consummated or not; but not so all of them. For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory."
Grant states in his concluding chapter that he favored giving African-Americans the vote. The final chapter is a reflection on the war and its effects, and the reconciliation of North and South. In the final paragraphs, Grant makes note of his own condition and expresses optimism that "Federal and Confederate" can live together. He writes:
"I am not egotist enough to suppose all this significance should be given because I was the object of it. But the war between the States was a very bloody and a very costly war. One side or the other had to yield principles they deemed dearer than life before it could be brought to an end. I commanded the whole of the mighty host engaged on the victorious side. I was, no matter whether deservedly so or not, a representative of that side of the controversy. It is a significant and gratifying fact that Confederates should have joined heartily in this spontaneous move. I hope the good feeling inaugurated may continue to the end."
Grant's struggle to finish his memoirs before his death gained a lot of notoriety in the press. On release, the book received universal critical praise. Mark Twain wrote:
"I had been comparing the memoirs with Caesar's Commentaries... I was able to say in all Apologetic forms that the same high merits distinguished both books - clarity of statement, directness, simplicity, manifest truthfulness, fairness and justice toward friend and foe alike and avoidance of flowery speech. General Grant was just a man, just a human being, just an author...The fact remains and cannot be dislodged that General Grant's book is a great, unique and unapproachable literary masterpiece. There is no higher literature than these modest, simple Memoirs. Their style is at least flawless, and no man can improve upon it."
Gertrude Stein also admired the book, saying she could not think of Grant without weeping. The Memoirs quickly became a best seller. The Grant family, who received 75 percent of the royalties, made approximately $450,000 (greater than $10 million in 2009 dollars) from the book. Julia Grant was able to pay off all of her husband's debts and it provided financial security for her and her family.