Presidents Behaving Goodly: Ulysses Grant's Final Battle
After his second term in office ended, President Ulysses Grant embarked on a grand world tour that lasted over two years. After leaving the White House, Grant and his family stayed with friends for two months, before setting out on the trip. The Grants arrived in Liverpool in May 1877, where enormous crowds greeted the ex-president. Grant and his wife Julia dined with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle, and Grant gave several speeches in London. After a tour on the continent, the Grants spent a few months with their daughter Nellie, who had married an Englishman and moved to England several years before. The Grants then traveled to France and Italy, spending Christmas 1877 aboard USS Vandalia, a warship docked in Palermo. They next went to the Holy Land and they visited Greece before returning to Italy where they had a meeting with Pope Leo XIII. The Grants then toured Spain before moving on to Germany, where Grant discussed military matters with Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
The Grants left from England by ship, sailing through the Suez Canal to India. After touring India, they toured Burma, Siam (where Grant met with the King), Singapore, and Cochinchina (as Vietnam was known at the time). The next stops on the tour were Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, and Peking, China. Grant then visited Japan where he met with the Emperor Meiji, and negotiated a settlement in a dispute between China and Japan, avoiding a war between the two nations.
The Grants returned to the United States in September 1879, arriving in San Francisco where they were met by cheering crowds. After a visit to Yosemite Valley, they returned home to Philadelphia on December 16, 1879. Grant's world tour had been very expensive and had depleted most of his savings. Grant needed to earn money once again to provide for his family. Some wealthy friends had bought him a home on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and to make an income, Grant, Jay Gould, and former Mexican Finance Secretary Matías Romero chartered the Mexican Southern Railroad, with plans to build a railroad from Oaxaca to Mexico City. Grant lobbied President Chester A. Arthur to negotiate a free trade treaty with Mexico. Arthur was supportive of the idea and and the Mexican government also agreed, but the Senate rejected the treaty in 1883. The railroad was unsuccessful, and ceased operations in 1884.
At the same time, Grant's son Ulysses Jr. had opened a Wall Street brokerage house with a man named Ferdinand Ward. Ward was regarded as some sort of rising star in the financial world and the firm, Grant & Ward, was very successful at first. In 1883, Ulysses Grant joined the firm and invested $100,000 of his own money. Investors bought securities through the firm, and Ward used the securities as collateral to borrow money to buy more securities. Grant & Ward pledged that collateral to borrow more money to trade in securities on the firm's own account. There was nothing wrong with this practice. However unbeknownst to Grant, Ward had been pledging the same securities as collateral for multiple loans. When the trades went bad, multiple loans came due, all secured by the same collateral. As he had done as president, Grant had put his trust in a dishonest party, unaware of Ward's tactics.
In May 1884, enough investments went bad to convince Ward that the firm would not survive bankruptcy. Ward falsely told Grant that this was a temporary shortfall. Grant approached businessman William Henry Vanderbilt, who gave him a personal loan of $150,000. Grant invested the money in the firm, hoping that this would be enough for the firm to ride out the financial storm, but it was not. The business failed, leaving Grant penniless, and costing those who had trusted him their investments. Ward served ten years in New York State's Sing Sing Prison for fraud.
Grant could have walked away from the problem, but he felt compelled by a sense of personal honor not to leave the investors high and dry. He repaid as much as he could by selling off his Civil War mementos, as well as whatever other assets he could. The proceeds were not enough to pay off the loan, but Vanderbilt insisted the debt had been paid in full. The experience left Grant destitute.
Grant was left with the problem of how to provide for his family. To restore his family income, Grant wrote several articles on his Civil War campaigns for The Century Magazine at $500 each. The articles were well received by critics, and the editor, Robert Underwood Johnson, suggested that Grant write a book of memoirs. His friend William Tecumseh Sherman and many others had done so successfully, and Grant had the advantage that the articles he had written could be used as the basis for several chapters.
Grant's writing career met with another setback. In the summer of 1884, Grant complained of a soreness in his throat, but he procrastinated about seeing a doctor until late October. At that time he learned that he was suffering from cancer of the throat, likely the result of years of heavy cigar smoking. In March of the following year, the New York Times finally announced that Grant was dying of cancer. Grant, who had forfeited his military pension when he assumed the presidency, was honored by his friends and by Congress when he was restored to the rank of General of the Army with full retirement pay.
Despite his painful illness, Grant worked diligently on his memoirs at his home in New York City, and later from a cottage on the slopes of Mount McGregor. He finished them just days before he died. Century magazine offered Grant a book contract with a 10 percent royalty, but Grant received a better offer from his friend, Mark Twain, who proposed a 75 percent royalty. The memoir covered the period of Grant's life up to the end of the Civil War. Unfortunately it does not cover the post-war years, including his presidency. The book is entitled Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, was a critical and commercial success. It has never gone out of print and is wonderful to read. The prose is timeless and Grant writes with an understated sense of humor. I highly recommend it for anyone who has not yet read this book.
In the end, Julia Grant received about $450,000 in royalties. The memoir has been highly regarded by the public, military historians, and literary critics. Twain called the Memoirs a "literary masterpiece."
After a year-long struggle with the cancer, Grant died at 8 o'clock in the morning in the Mount McGregor cottage on July 23, 1885, at the age of 63. In his final years, Grant showed remarkable character, first by selling off personal property and mementos of a remarkable career in order to repay those swindled by Ferdinand Ward, and later by racing the grim reaper in order to finish his memoirs so that his family could be provided for after he was gone. Grant's powerful examples of unselfishness are yet another chapter in the life of this remarkable man.
The Grants left from England by ship, sailing through the Suez Canal to India. After touring India, they toured Burma, Siam (where Grant met with the King), Singapore, and Cochinchina (as Vietnam was known at the time). The next stops on the tour were Hong Kong, Canton, Shanghai, and Peking, China. Grant then visited Japan where he met with the Emperor Meiji, and negotiated a settlement in a dispute between China and Japan, avoiding a war between the two nations.
The Grants returned to the United States in September 1879, arriving in San Francisco where they were met by cheering crowds. After a visit to Yosemite Valley, they returned home to Philadelphia on December 16, 1879. Grant's world tour had been very expensive and had depleted most of his savings. Grant needed to earn money once again to provide for his family. Some wealthy friends had bought him a home on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and to make an income, Grant, Jay Gould, and former Mexican Finance Secretary Matías Romero chartered the Mexican Southern Railroad, with plans to build a railroad from Oaxaca to Mexico City. Grant lobbied President Chester A. Arthur to negotiate a free trade treaty with Mexico. Arthur was supportive of the idea and and the Mexican government also agreed, but the Senate rejected the treaty in 1883. The railroad was unsuccessful, and ceased operations in 1884.
At the same time, Grant's son Ulysses Jr. had opened a Wall Street brokerage house with a man named Ferdinand Ward. Ward was regarded as some sort of rising star in the financial world and the firm, Grant & Ward, was very successful at first. In 1883, Ulysses Grant joined the firm and invested $100,000 of his own money. Investors bought securities through the firm, and Ward used the securities as collateral to borrow money to buy more securities. Grant & Ward pledged that collateral to borrow more money to trade in securities on the firm's own account. There was nothing wrong with this practice. However unbeknownst to Grant, Ward had been pledging the same securities as collateral for multiple loans. When the trades went bad, multiple loans came due, all secured by the same collateral. As he had done as president, Grant had put his trust in a dishonest party, unaware of Ward's tactics.
In May 1884, enough investments went bad to convince Ward that the firm would not survive bankruptcy. Ward falsely told Grant that this was a temporary shortfall. Grant approached businessman William Henry Vanderbilt, who gave him a personal loan of $150,000. Grant invested the money in the firm, hoping that this would be enough for the firm to ride out the financial storm, but it was not. The business failed, leaving Grant penniless, and costing those who had trusted him their investments. Ward served ten years in New York State's Sing Sing Prison for fraud.
Grant could have walked away from the problem, but he felt compelled by a sense of personal honor not to leave the investors high and dry. He repaid as much as he could by selling off his Civil War mementos, as well as whatever other assets he could. The proceeds were not enough to pay off the loan, but Vanderbilt insisted the debt had been paid in full. The experience left Grant destitute.
Grant was left with the problem of how to provide for his family. To restore his family income, Grant wrote several articles on his Civil War campaigns for The Century Magazine at $500 each. The articles were well received by critics, and the editor, Robert Underwood Johnson, suggested that Grant write a book of memoirs. His friend William Tecumseh Sherman and many others had done so successfully, and Grant had the advantage that the articles he had written could be used as the basis for several chapters.
Grant's writing career met with another setback. In the summer of 1884, Grant complained of a soreness in his throat, but he procrastinated about seeing a doctor until late October. At that time he learned that he was suffering from cancer of the throat, likely the result of years of heavy cigar smoking. In March of the following year, the New York Times finally announced that Grant was dying of cancer. Grant, who had forfeited his military pension when he assumed the presidency, was honored by his friends and by Congress when he was restored to the rank of General of the Army with full retirement pay.
Despite his painful illness, Grant worked diligently on his memoirs at his home in New York City, and later from a cottage on the slopes of Mount McGregor. He finished them just days before he died. Century magazine offered Grant a book contract with a 10 percent royalty, but Grant received a better offer from his friend, Mark Twain, who proposed a 75 percent royalty. The memoir covered the period of Grant's life up to the end of the Civil War. Unfortunately it does not cover the post-war years, including his presidency. The book is entitled Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, was a critical and commercial success. It has never gone out of print and is wonderful to read. The prose is timeless and Grant writes with an understated sense of humor. I highly recommend it for anyone who has not yet read this book.
In the end, Julia Grant received about $450,000 in royalties. The memoir has been highly regarded by the public, military historians, and literary critics. Twain called the Memoirs a "literary masterpiece."
After a year-long struggle with the cancer, Grant died at 8 o'clock in the morning in the Mount McGregor cottage on July 23, 1885, at the age of 63. In his final years, Grant showed remarkable character, first by selling off personal property and mementos of a remarkable career in order to repay those swindled by Ferdinand Ward, and later by racing the grim reaper in order to finish his memoirs so that his family could be provided for after he was gone. Grant's powerful examples of unselfishness are yet another chapter in the life of this remarkable man.