Arrests of Ulysses S. Grant
There are three reported
Both 1866 arrests were reported by the D.C.
Grant is characterized as resistant to police authority in the first narrative and as deferential in the latter two. The image of Grant deferring to West has been cited as a symbol of the
1866 arrests
On April 9, 1866, when Grant was lieutenant general (promoted later that year to General of the Army), the National Intelligencer of D.C. reported that while "exercising his fast gray nag" on 14th Street, Grant was detained for fast driving by two officers of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD). Grant offered to pay the fine, but "expressed his doubts of their authority to arrest him and drove off". Several days later, Grant "acknowledged the service of a warrant for fast driving and appeared before the Justice of the Peace and paid the fine". The National Intelligencer's report was republished in newspapers around the country, including The New York Times.[6] The Daily Richmond Whig[6][9] and Staunton Spectator[10] added that "it was a bad example in General Grant to violate a law, but a worse one to treat the officers of law with contempt".
Several months later, the
Alleged 1872 arrest
The claim that Grant was arrested while in office is associated with William H. West, a former Union Army private who joined the MPD in 1871.[12]
An 1897 article from
West's 1908 Star account
Shortly after being assigned his beat by 13th and M Street NW, West comes to the scene of an incident where a woman and young child have been badly injured by a speeding team of horses, violations being common in that area due to the proximity of Brightwood Trotting Park. While West is discussing the matter with residents, Grant and several friends come racing down the street as well, prompting West to order them to stop; Grant succeeds in halting his horses despite their excitement. He asks West what he wants to which West replies,
I want to inform you, Mr. President, that you are violating the law by speeding along this street. Your fast driving, sir, has set the example for a lot of other gentlemen. It is endangering the lives of the people who have to cross the street in this locality, and only this evening a lady was knocked down by one of these racing teams.
Grant apologizes, commits to following the speed limit in the future, and asks after the injured woman. West's answer prompts him to reiterate his commitment to follow speed laws. The next evening, again posted at 13th and M, West watches a large number of horse teams speed past; West hails the riders. Grant, leading the pack, is unable to stop for a full block, but eventually gets his horses under control and returns, followed by six others, some of whom are also government officials. Smiling and looking like "a schoolboy who had been caught in a guilty act by his teacher", Grant asks West if the latter thinks he has been speeding. West recalls his caution from the day before, at which Grant feigns poor memory and blames the horses. West replies,
I am very sorry, Mr. President, to have to do it, for you are the chief of the nation, and I am nothing but a policeman, but duty is duty, sir, and I will have to place you under arrest.
West takes Grant to the police station. Grant invites West to have a seat in the carriage and asks him about his background. West tells the former general of his own service in the
West is later assigned to the mounted force, where he talks to Grant often about equestrian matters. According to West's account, he is afterward especially called to investigate and then solves the theft of a pair of stallions, rare Arabian horses that had been a sultan's gift during Grant's world tour.[12][b]
MPD comments and other accounts
In one common narrative dating to 1929 or earlier, West grabs Grant's horse by the bridle and is dragged 50 feet (15 m). He then recognizes Grant and apologizes, to which Grant says, "Officer, do your duty" or similar.[17]
A 150th anniversary book published by the MPD[18] repeats the claim of West having been dragged 50 feet. The book contains several alternate narratives as to what happened after the arrest, including one in which police impound the vehicle but do not fine Grant.[19] In 2012, MPD Chief Cathy Lanier commented on the arrest in a manner widely perceived as confirming its authenticity.[5][7][20][21] Lanier gave a sequence of events in which officers are unsure if they can charge Grant absent an impeachment, and thus let him off with a fine and impound the vehicle, leaving him to walk back to the White House.[21][20] As of February 2023[update], the MPD academy's training material references all three arrests, saying that the third occurred in 1877 and characterizing it in terms similar to Lanier's 2012 comments.[22]
Historicity
A 2018 segment on
In a series of
Legacy
The 1872 arrest anecdote was recorded as a moral tale (cf. George Washington's cherry-tree) in the Sunday school periodical The Well Spring in 1903 or earlier, later reproduced in several educational publications.[27]
Grant scholar Marszalek describes it as an appropriate and "wonderful" irony that a president who championed equality under Reconstruction might have been arrested by a Black man.[23]
The alleged arrest was cited in a 1945 dissent by
Notes
- ^ Donald Trump was arrested four times in 2023, two years after leaving office.[2][3] A purported arrest of Franklin Pierce while in office, also for misconduct in a carriage, is likely apocryphal, according to Pierce biographer Peter Wallner.[4]
- ^ Grant's Arabian stallions are well-documented, but there is no record beside West's account of their ever being stolen from Edward Fitzgerald Beale's estate at Ash Hill.
- ^ The Philippines was a U.S. territory until 1946.
References
- ^ "Ulysses S. Grant's Horsemanship". National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ a b Chasan, Aliza (April 4, 2023). "Trump has been charged, but Ulysses S. Grant was the first president to be arrested". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ Otten, Tori (August 4, 2023). "Donald Trump Becomes the First President Ever to Pose for a Mug Shot". The New Republic. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
- ISBN 9781610698832.
- ^ a b c Rashbaum, William K.; Christobek, Kate (April 4, 2023). "The only other arrest of a U.S. president involved a speeding horse". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g This article incorporates public domain material from "Was General Grant Arrested for Speeding in Washington, D.C.?". Research by Ryan Semmes. Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site (National Park Service). April 26, 2023. Archived from the original on May 4, 2023. Retrieved May 3, 2023.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ a b c d e Rosenwald, Michael S. (December 16, 2018). "The police officer who arrested a president". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- Adapted as: Rosenwald, Michael S. (March 30, 2023) [March 21, 2023]. "A president has never been indicted before. But one was arrested". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ "G.R. No. L-44 - LILY RAQUIZA, ET AL. vs. L.J. BRADFORD, ET AL". www.chanrobles.com. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
- Newspapers.com.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^ Sylvester, Richard, ed. (1894). District of Columbia Police. Gibson Bros. p. 159.
- ^ The Sunday Star. Washington, D.C. September 27, 1908. Pt. 4, p. 2. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023 – via Chronicling America.
- Newspapers.com.
- ProQuest 144256318.
- ProQuest 145372748.
- Newspapers.com.
- ^
- Newspapers.com.
- Butterfield, Roger (1947). "The Presidential Speedster". The American Past. Simon and Schuster. p. 196 – via Internet Archive.
- Durant, John (August 13, 1956). "Horses for the General". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- Moberg, Julia (2012). Presidential Pets: The Weird, Wacky, Little, Big, Scary, Strange Animals that Have Lived in the White House. ISBN 9781607345824.
- Mancini, Mark (July 6, 2015). "The Cop Who Gave Ulysses S. Grant a Speeding Ticket". Mental Floss.
- ^ "Metropolitan Police Department – Washington, D.C." Acclaim Press. Archived from the original on May 4, 2023. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
- ^ Hermann, Peter (March 10, 2023). "5 archaic D.C. laws still technically on the books after crime bill is nixed". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ WTOP News. October 6, 2012. Archivedfrom the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ "Curriculum Block 1: Introduction to Policing". Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia. February 24, 2023. § 1.6, p. 5 of PDF. Archived from the original on May 4, 2023. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
- ^ a b Simon, Scott (December 22, 2018). "That Time A President Got In Trouble With The Police". Weekend Edition. NPR. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- Ulysses S. Grant Cottage National Historic Landmark. Archivedfrom the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Solly, Meilan (March 31, 2023). "When President Ulysses S. Grant Was Arrested for Speeding in a Horse-Drawn Carriage". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on April 11, 2023. Retrieved April 11, 2023.
- ^ Benton, Joshua [@jbenton] (April 4, 2023). "The news of the day is about a president being arrested, so it's also time for a round of stories on the time Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for speeding on his horse in 1872" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Unity. R. Collyer and others. 1902. Archived from the original on April 22, 2023. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
- ^ "G.R. No. L-44 - LILY RAQUIZA, ET AL. vs. L.J. BRADFORD, ET AL". www.chanrobles.com. Archived from the original on April 22, 2023. Retrieved April 22, 2023.
- from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Kristof, Nicholas (March 30, 2023). "I Worry About a Failed Prosecution of Trump, but I Worry More About No Prosecution". Opinion. The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved March 31, 2023.