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Scandals During Grant's Presidency
Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, had a reputation as a very honest man, but one who exercised poor judgment in his choice of companions. Evidence of Grant's poor judgment can be found in the sheer number of scandals that occurred during his presidency. One notable scandal during Grant's tenure as president was the Black Friday Gold Panic of 1869. Another scandal during his presidency was the Whisky Ring. Examining both these scandals reveals that Grant did not personally profit from the scandals, but was willing to use his position as President to help out his less scrupulous acquaintances. Unfortunately, the willingness to use his power and influence to help out less scrupulous friends, though it did not provide any personal benefit to Grant, tainted his presidency as much as if he had personally profited from those scandals.
The Black Friday Gold Panic of 1869 began as an attempt by Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, two notoriously crooked financiers, to influence Grant's monetary policy. Grant's fiscal position had been that he would try to improve the economy by using...
Gould and Fisk did not want the government to buy gold because they wanted to speculate in gold futures, watch the value of gold rise, and then sell their personal gold at tremendous profit. If Grant engaged in his proposed greenback buy-back program, the price of gold would not rise sufficiently for them to make a significant profit. The two men enlisted the aid of Grant's brother-in-law, Abel Rathbone Corbin, to try to influence Grant's monetary policy. However, Grant uncovered the scheme and ordered the sale of $4,000,000 in government gold (WGBH Educational Foundation, 2010). This massive unloading of government gold caused a plummet in gold prices, with investors trying to unload their gold.
The Whisky Ring scandal involved a group of whisky dealers who conspired to defraud the government by keeping the liquor taxes for themselves (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013). Although the scheme was relatively well-known, because of the connections and power of the various people involved, it was assumed that they…
References
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2013. Whiskey Ring. Encylopaedia Britannica.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/641929/Whiskey-Ring
Fat Wallet. 2013. Black Friday 1869. Fat Wallet. http://www.fatwallet.com/black-friday/resources/black-friday-1869/
The University of Richmond. 2009. Grant Administration Embroiled in Whisky Ring Scandal.
History Engine. http://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/1625
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/grant-black-friday/
In fact, Norton claims that while the Whiskey Ring investigation was taking place, Grant had stated, "Let no guilty man escape" (Bailey 512) but when news that his secretary was involved surfaced, he "speedily changed his views" (512). Grant wrote a personal note to the jury and "with all the weight of his exalter office behind it, the their escaped" (512). When Belknap was exposed, Grant accepted his resignation
ULYSSES S. GRANT The 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, was a most curious American public figure. His two presidential terms are considered by political critics as the most corrupt in American history, yet his contribution and role in those most important and historic times cannot be under-estimated. He was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in 1822 to a hardworking couple in southwestern Ohio. He went to a seminary and
Grant supporter, George Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly, once wrote to a friend, "I think the warmest friends of Grant feel that he has failed terribly as President, but not from want of honesty or desire, but from want of tact and great ignorance...It is a political position and he knows nothing of politics and rather despises them" (Goode).. After he left office, Grant and Julia settled in New York.
The Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War and which Wilson played a key part in negotiating, was never ratified by the U.S. Congress and, as a result, the United States never became a member of the League of Nations. Wilson's behavior in reaction to opposition in Congress regarding the Versailles Treaty, in general, and the League of Nations portion of that Treaty, specifically, may be the best
He focused on tariff reform in the Underwood-Simmons Act by arguing that high tariffs created monopolies and hurt consumers, pushed to end certain child labor practices, and above all tried to engender a fairer distribution of public funds for housing, utilities, and public projects (Wilson, 2011). However, looking back at his pre-World War I policies, it was his adamant work on currency and banking reform that seemed to have the
However, he advocated a policy of conservative, limited government and opposed the policies of the Republican's view of punishing the South during Reconstruction. Seymour was quite competitive in his run against Grant with the popular vote, but was soundly defeated by an electoral vote of 214 (Grant) to 80 (Waugh, 2009). Grant had a particularly easy campaign, running on his war record, a desire to repair the Union, and a