This is the Second Part General Ulysses S. Grant article.
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Presidency General Ulysses S. Grant
General Ulysses S. Grant was chosen as the Republican presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention in Chicago on May 20 1868 with no real opposition. In the general election that year, he won with a majority of 3,012,833 out of a total of 5,716,082 votes cast.
General Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th (1869–1877) President of the United States and served two terms from March 4, 1869 to March 3, 1877.
General Ulysses S. Grant's presidency was plagued with the suspicion of scandal, especially the Whiskey Ring fraud in which over $3 million in taxes were taken from the federal government. Orville E. Babcock, the private secretary to the President, was indicted as a member of the ring and escaped conviction only because of a presidential pardon. After the Whiskey ring, Grant's Secretary of War William W. Belknap was involved in an investigation which revealed that he had taken bribes in exchange for the sale of Native American trading posts. Although there is no evidence that Grant himself profited from corruption among his subordinates, he did not take a firm stance against malefactors and failed to react strongly even after their guilt was established.
General Ulysses S. Grant was peripherally involved in the matter of Edgardo Mortara, sending a plea to Pope Pius IX to allow the boy to return to his parents.
Grant was known to visit the Willard Hotel to escape the stress of the White House. He referred to the people who approached him in the lobby as "those damn lobbyists," possibly giving rise to the modern term lobbyist.
Later life - General Ulysses S. Grant
After the end of his second term General Ulysses S. Grant spent two years travelling around the world. On this tour he visited Sunderland where he opened the first free municipal public library in England.
Ulysses S. Grant was elected the eighth president of the National Rifle Association in 1883. Grant wrote his memoirs shortly before his death, while terminally ill from throat cancer and in financial difficulties after the collapse of the firm General Ulysses S. Grant and Ward. He fought to finish his memoirs in the hope they would provide financially for his family after his death. Assisted by Samuel Clemens, he finished them just a few days before his death, and they succeeded in providing a comfortable income for his wife and children. He died on July 23, 1885 at Mount McGregor, Saratoga County, New York. His body lies in New York City, with that of his wife, in Grant's Tomb, the largest mausoleum in North America.
Statue of General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg, Mississippi.Grant's portrait appears on the U.S. $50 bill.
General Ulysses S. Grant's professed religion was Methodist.
Ulysses S. Grant's nicknames included: The Hero of Appomattox, "Unconditional Surrender" Grant, Sam Grant, and, in his youth, Ulys and Useless.
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