Ulysses S. Grant

18th President of the United States (1869-1877) · Commanding General of the U.S. Army · Union general in the Civil War · Memoirist

Union commander in the Civil War and 18th U.S. president who enforced Reconstruction, broke the first Ku Klux Klan and settled disputes with Britain by arbitration, in an administration marked by scandals.

Position
Solid, past the ring: second pole
Short, inside the ring: first pole
Balanced

★ Ulysses S. Grant on 12 axes

Share of each pole

Economy

Equality / Markets

OwnershipModerate: Private
33%67%
PublicPrivate
MarketsMild: Free
35%65%
PlannedFree
WelfareModerate: Self-reliant
30%70%
SharedSelf-reliant

State and liberty

Liberty / Authority

AuthorityMild: Democratic
55%45%
DemocraticStrong leader
SecurityModerate: Order
30%70%
LibertyOrder
StructureModerate: Central
20%80%
LocalCentral

Society

Progress / Tradition

MoralityNo clear record
ProgressiveTraditional
ReligionMild: Secular
65%35%
SecularReligious
TechnologyNo clear record
EmbraceCaution
CultureNo clear record
MulticulturalNational identity

World

Global / Nation

TradeNo clear record
GlobalProtected
Foreign policyMild: Cooperation
58%42%
CooperationStrength

How we placed it

Judgment calls

Positions summarize typical stances from primary sources and reference works. Where an axis is genuinely contested, the reasoning is below.

Ownership: No public ownership debate in his era; scored from his support for a private economy and sound money.
Markets: Vetoed the 1874 inflation bill and signed the Specie Resumption Act, favoring gold-backed currency over government expansion of the money supply.
Welfare: Offered little federal relief during the depression that followed the Panic of 1873; no welfare system existed in his era.
Authority: Won two elections and backed Black voting rights and civil service reform, but tolerated patronage and corruption among close associates; scored near the middle.
Security: Used the Enforcement Acts, federal troops and a suspension of habeas corpus in part of South Carolina to break the Ku Klux Klan.
Structure: Used federal power to protect voting rights and Reconstruction governments in the former Confederate states.
Morality: No documented position on family or social norms beyond the conventions of his era; left null.
Religion: Called in 1875 for a constitutional amendment barring public money for sectarian schools, a separationist position that historians also link to anti-Catholic sentiment of the time.
Technology: No documented view; 19th-century context.
Culture: Mixed record: he promoted Black citizenship and a Peace Policy of assimilating Native Americans, while his wartime order expelling Jews from his military district is a lasting stain; left null.
Trade: No documented position on the tariff in the sources used here; left null.
Foreign policy: Settled the Alabama Claims with Britain through international arbitration but sought, unsuccessfully, to annex Santo Domingo.

4 axes are marked as no clear record: there is no reasonable basis to place Ulysses S. Grant there, so matching leaves them out.

Who was Ulysses S. Grant?

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), a West Point graduate and veteran of the war with Mexico, rose from obscurity in the Civil War to command all Union armies and accept Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox in 1865. Elected president as a Republican in 1868 and re-elected in 1872, he backed the Fifteenth Amendment, enforced Reconstruction in the South and pursued a Peace Policy toward Native Americans. His administration also faced a severe depression after 1873 and a series of corruption scandals involving his appointees. After leaving office he lost his savings in a fraudulent investment firm and wrote his widely praised memoirs while dying of cancer.

Political views

Urged ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, which barred denying the vote on account of race.
Source: millercenter.org
Signed the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and used it to counter terrorist violence against Black Southerners.
Source: millercenter.org
Suspended habeas corpus in part of South Carolina in 1871 and sent federal troops to help marshals prosecute Klan members.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Vetoed the 1874 inflation bill and signed the Specie Resumption Act of 1875, returning the currency to a gold basis.
Source: millercenter.org
Became the first president to recommend a professional civil service and appointed the first Civil Service Commission.
Source: millercenter.org
Called in 1875 for a constitutional amendment requiring free public schools and banning public money for sectarian schools.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Settled the Alabama Claims with Britain by sending them to international arbitration under the 1871 Treaty of Washington.
Source: millercenter.org

Legacy

Grant's reputation has risen sharply among historians since the late 20th century. Admirers credit him with doing more than any other 19th-century president to protect the rights of Black Americans, from the Fifteenth Amendment to the prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan, and with a successful foreign policy. Critics, then and now, point to the scandals of his administration, including the Whiskey Ring, which implicated his personal secretary, and argue that he was too trusting of associates. His Peace Policy sought to assimilate Native Americans and was followed by the Great Sioux War of 1876 and the loss of the Black Hills. Historians also cite his 1862 wartime order expelling Jews from his military district, which Lincoln revoked and Grant later regretted.

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FAQ

Ulysses S. Grant: questions

What political party was Ulysses S. Grant?

Grant was a Republican. He won the presidency in 1868 and 1872 and sought a third nomination unsuccessfully in 1880.

What did Grant do during Reconstruction?

He backed the Fifteenth Amendment and used the Enforcement Acts and federal troops to protect Black voters and break the Ku Klux Klan. Support for enforcement faded in the North during his second term.

Was the Grant administration corrupt?

Several of his appointees were involved in scandals, including the Whiskey Ring tax fraud. Grant himself was not shown to have profited, but historians fault his loyalty to associates who did.

Sources

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