Bill Clinton, New York Times [original article contains links]
Grant image from article
Excerpt:This is a good time for Ron Chernow’s fine biography of Ulysses S. Grant to
appear, as we live with the reality of Faulkner’s declaration, “The past is never dead,
it’s not even past.” We are now several years into revisiting the issues that shaped
Grant’s service in the Civil War and the White House, from the rise of white
supremacy groups to successful attacks on the right of eligible citizens to vote to the
economic inequalities of the Gilded Age. In so many ways “Grant” comes to us now
as much a mirror as a history lesson. ...
[The book] It covers Grant’s amazing feats on horseback at West Point, where in jumping hurdles “he exceeded all rivals,” clearing the bar a foot higher than other cadets. His mediocre grades have long obscured his interests and abilities: He was president of the literary society, had a talent for drawing and was trusted by classmates to mediate disputes. ...
After Appomattox, and the assassination of Lincoln, Grant moved to what he
then called Washington City to lead the Army through the war’s aftermath. Chernow
notes that, as a general, Grant had nearly always fought on unfamiliar ground, which
required a kind of concentration that could support a state of continuous
reassessment. Washington was also unfamiliar ground, and continuous
reassessment was just as vital to political success as it had been to victory on the
field. Grant proved a quick study, even after he had professed to be “no politician.”
For example, he saw early on that the new president, Andrew Johnson, who
many feared would be much harsher on the South than Lincoln would have been,
had begun to lean hard — and dangerously — in the opposite direction. “Mr.
Johnson,” Grant writes in his memoirs, “after a complete revolution of sentiment,
seemed to regard the South not only as an oppressed people, but as the people best
entitled to consideration of any of our citizens.” Needless for Grant to say, this favor
of Johnson’s fell to white Southerners only. He began to bring the weight of the
presidency down on the side of those who championed what became the infamous
Black Codes, designed to force freed slaves to continue to work on plantations in
conditions much like those before emancipation.
As Grant’s and Johnson’s political differences grew wider, Grant, as General of
the Army and immensely popular, began to suffer the ire of the increasingly besieged
Johnson, who demanded fealty and, when frustrated and convinced of disloyalties
real or imagined, tended to lash out. “It grated on Johnson that Grant,” Chernow
says, “a mere subordinate, had been endowed with … godlike powers over
Reconstruction.” ...
Contrary to Johnson’s claim, the power Grant had to oversee the fate of the
postwar South was hardly godlike. A former social club named for the Greek word
kuklos, or circle, the Ku Klux Klan had begun “to shade into a quasi-military
organization, recruiting Nathan Bedford Forrest as a leader” — and vowing “to
‘support a white man’s government’ and carry weapons at all times.” By the time of
Grant’s election as president in 1868, the Klan was targeting black voters and their
supporters with “murders and mutilations in a grotesque spirit of sadistic mockery.”
The Union that Grant had been instrumental in saving as a general was splintering
anew even before he took his oath of office. As Chernow writes, “If there were many
small things Grant didn’t know about the presidency, he knew one big thing: His
main mission was to settle unfinished business from the war by preserving the
Union and safeguarding the freed slaves.” [JB emphasis]
And there was a very real chance Grant, and with him the country, would fail.
For that new mission, Grant needed cabinet members, staff and advisers every
bit as masterful as his wartime lieutenants. His choices were notably hit-and-miss,
but his very first appointee from a Confederate state proved to be one of his best.
Amos T. Akerman of Georgia, Grant’s second attorney general, was “honest and
incorruptible” and “devoted to the rule of law.” When Congress created the
Department of Justice the same week as his appointment, the attorney general
became overnight the head of “an active department with a substantial array of new
powers.” Those powers were sorely needed to fight the Klan and what Chernow
appropriately calls “the worst outbreak of domestic terrorism in American history.”
Grant signed three bills, collectively known as the Enforcement Acts, to
strengthen federal powers in combating Klan terrorism, which had already claimed
thousands of lives, the vast majority of them black. After the laws were in force,
“federal grand juries, many interracial, brought 3,384 indictments against the
K.K.K., resulting in 1,143 convictions.” Almost as important as the convictions was
the message they sent. As Akerman told his district attorneys, “If you cannot convict,
you, at least, can expose, and ultimately such exposures will make the community
ashamed of shielding the crime.”
By the end of his first term, scandals had begun to take their toll, but at the
same time the Klan — at least in its original incarnation — had been essentially
destroyed. “Peace has come to many places as never before,” declared Frederick
Douglass, an ally and admirer of Grant’s. “The scourging and slaughter of our people
have so far ceased.” However short-lived, it was an important victory not only for an
enlightened version of Reconstruction but also for the beneficial use of the powers of
the federal government to promote the general welfare and safety of all Americans,
not just some.
As president, Grant appointed a record number of African-Americans to
government positions all across the board, including the first black diplomat.
Douglass once noted “in one department at Washington I found 249” black
appointees, “and many more holding important positions in its service in different
parts of the country.” Early in his presidency and at the height of his popularity,
Grant had also been a booster of the 15th Amendment, giving former slaves the vote,
and many believe his support was key to its ratification by the states, which was far
from guaranteed. Grant himself minced no words in describing the magnitude of the
amendment’s passage, saying in a message to Congress upon its ratification, “The
adoption of the 15th Amendment ... constitutes the most important event that has
occurred, since the nation came into life.” He knew the right to vote is the heart of
democracy and did not hesitate to defend it, a legacy today’s Supreme Court and
Republicans in Washington and across the country should embrace, not abandon.
Chernow shows a fine balance in exposing Grant’s flaws and missteps as
president, and the ill-fated turn that Reconstruction took after a promising start,
while making it clear that Grant’s contributions after Appomattox were as
consequential to the survival of our democracy as any that came before. As
Americans continue the struggle to defend justice and equality in our tumultuous
and divisive era, we need to know what Grant did when our country’s very existence
hung in the balance. If we still believe in forming a more perfect union, his steady
and courageous example is more valuable than ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment