Reforms of the Ulysses S. Grant administration
Reforms of the Ulysses S. Grant administration | |
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18th President of the United States | |
In office March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Hiram Ulysses Grant April 27, 1822 Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | July 23, 1885 Wilton, New York, U.S. | (aged 63)
Resting place | General Grant National Memorial Manhattan, New York |
Political party | Republican |
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18th President of the United States
Presidential elections
Post-presidency
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During Ulysses S. Grant's two terms as president of the United States (1869–1877) there were several executive branch investigations, prosecutions, and reforms carried-out by President Grant, Congress, and several members of his cabinet, in the wake of several revelations of fraudulent activities within the administration. Grant's cabinet fluctuated between talented individuals or reformers and those involved with political patronage or party corruption. Some notable reforming cabinet members were persons who had outstanding abilities and made many positive contributions to the administration. These reformers resisted the Republican Party's demands for patronage to select efficient civil servants. Although Grant traditionally is known for his administration scandals, more credit has been given to him for his appointment of reformers.
It was with the encouragement of these reformers that Grant established the first
Several of Grant's cabinet members supported and implemented Civil Service reform in their respected federal departments. President Grant signed a bill into law that allowed the Postal Department to prosecute pornography through the mail, a law that is still in effect today. Grant appointed several leading reformers including Hamilton Fish, Benjamin Bristow, and Edwards Pierrepont. During his first administration Grant prosecuted and shut down the Ku Klux Klan under the Enforcement Acts he signed into law in 1870 and 1871. Grant, a trained military leader, was often at odds with Cabinet reformers who he believed were insubordinate to his administration. On several occasions, Grant dismissed cabinet reformers without notice or explanation.
Reforming cabinet members
Grant's cabinet fluctuated between talented individuals or reformers and those involved with political patronage or party corruption. Some notable reforming cabinet members were persons who had outstanding abilities and made many positive contributions to the administration. These reformers resisted the GOP demands for patronage to select efficient civil servants.[1][2] Grant's most successful appointment, Hamilton Fish, after the confirmation on March 17, 1869, went immediately to work and collected, classified, indexed, and bound seven hundred volumes of correspondence. He established a new indexing system that simplified retrieving information by clerks. Fish also created a rule that applicants for the consulate had to take an official written examination to receive an appointment; previously, applicants were given positions on a patronage system solely on the recommendations of Congressmen and Senators. This raised the tone and efficiency of the consular service, and if a Congressman or Senator objected, Fish could show them that the applicant did not pass the written test.[3] According to Fish's biographer and historian Amos Elwood Corning in 1919, Fish was known as "a gentleman of wide experience, in whom the capacities of the organizer were happily united with a well-balanced judgment and broad culture".
Another reforming cabinet member was
During
As perhaps Grant's most popular cabinet reformer,
In 1875, Grant paired up Secretary of Treasury
When Grant was in a bind to find a replacement for Secretary of War
In 1875, the
Postmaster General
Grant appointment, U.S. Postmaster
Grant's appointments of Bristow, Pierrepont, and Jewell on his cabinet, temporarily appeased reformers.[17]
Thwarted gold ring (1869)
In September 1869, financial manipulators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk set up an elaborate scam to corner the gold market through buying up all the gold at the same time to drive up the price and actively encouraging gold investment by speculators. The plan was to keep the government from selling gold, thus driving its price, while Gould promoted that a higher price of gold would help farmers gain more profits overseas on a good year of crops. President Grant's Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell had implemented a policy of monthly sales of Treasury gold to reduce and pay off the national debt, caused by the Civil War. This federal Treasury policy effectively kept the market price of gold low. Desiring the government to stay out of the gold business, President Grant stopped Boutwell's monthly sale of Treasury gold in September. Keeping track of the rapid rising price of gold at Gould's banking house in New York, President Grant and Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell ordered the sale of $4 million in gold on (Black) Friday, September 23. The release of the gold thwarted Gould's and Fisk's plan to corner the gold market. After the treasury gold was released, the market price of gold dropped. The effects of releasing the gold, however, had temporary detrimental effects on the economy as stock prices plunged and food prices dropped, devastating New York bankers and southern farmers for months.[18]
Enforcement Acts (1870–1871)
During his first administration, President Grant signed a series of laws known as the Enforcement Acts that were to reform the South and protect
The Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina was strongly entrenched and continued acts of violence against
Civil service commission (1871)
President Grant was the first U.S. President to recommend a professional civil service, successfully pass the initial legislation through Congress in 1871, and appointed the members for the first United States Civil Service Commission. The temporary Commission recommended administering competitive exams and issuing regulations on the hiring and promotion of government employees. Grant ordered their recommendations in effect in 1872; having lasted for two years until December, 1874. Many of Grant's cabinet implemented the Commission's reform rules that improved the overall moral and merit of the federal workforce. At the New York Custom House, a port that took in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue, persons who applied for an entry position had to take and pass a civil service examination. Chester A. Arthur who was appointed by Grant as New York Custom Collector stated that the examinations excluded and deterred unfit persons from getting employment positions.[24] Grant, however, allowed Secretary Delano to exempt the Department of Interior from the Commission's rulings. However, Congress, in no mood to reform itself, denied any long-term reform by refusing to enact the necessary legislation to make the changes permanent. Historians have traditionally been divided whether patronage, meaning appointments made without a merit system, should be labelled corruption.[25]
The movement for Civil Service reform reflected two distinct objectives: to eliminate the corruption and inefficiencies in a non-professional bureaucracy, and to check the power of President Johnson. Although many reformers after the Election of 1868 looked to Grant to ram Civil Service legislation through Congress, he refused, saying: "Civil Service Reform rests entirely with Congress. If members will give up claiming patronage, that will be a step gained. But there is an immense amount of human nature in the members of Congress, and it is human nature to seek power and use it to help friends. You cannot call it corruption – it is a condition of our representative form of Government."[26] Grant used patronage to build his party and help his friends. He instinctively protected those who he thought were the victims of injustice or attacks by his enemies, even if they were guilty.[27] Grant believed in loyalty with his friends, as one writer called it the "Chivalry of Friendship".[28]
Prosecuted Mormons (1871)
In 1862, during the American Civil War President Lincoln signed into law the Morrill bill that outlawed polygamy in all U.S. Territories. Mormons who practiced polygamy in Utah, for the most part, resisted the Morrill law and the territorial governor.[29]: 301 During the 1868 election, Grant had mentioned he would enforce the law against polygamy. Tensions began as early as 1870, when Mormons in Ogden, Utah began to arm themselves and practice military drilling.[30] By the Fourth of July, 1871 Mormon militia in Salt Lake City, Utah were on the verge of fighting territorial troops; however, more level heads prevailed and violence was averted.[31] Grant, however, who believed Utah was in a state of rebellion was determined to arrest those who practiced polygamy outlawed under the Morrill Act, which forbid Mormon's from claiming polygamy was a "spiritual marriage".[32]
In October 1871 hundreds of Mormons were rounded up by U.S. marshals, put in a prison camp, arrested, and put on trial for polygamy. One convicted polygamist received a $500 fine and 3 years in prison under hard labor.[33] On November 20, 1871, Mormon leader Brigham Young, in ill health, had been charged with polygamy. Young's attorney stated that Young had no intention to flee the court. Other persons during the polygamy shut down were charged with murder or intent to kill.[34] The Morrill Act, however, proved hard to enforce since proof of marriage was required for conviction.[29]: 294 On December 4, 1871, Grant stated that polygamists in Utah were "a remnant of barbarism, repugnant to civilization, to decency, and to the laws of the United States."[35]
Prosecuted pornographers and abortionists (1873-1877)
On March 3, 1873, President Grant signed into law the
Treasury Department (1874)
On June 3, 1874 President Grant appointed
Justice Department (1875)
When Edwards Pierrepont assumed the office of U.S. Attorney General, appointed by President Grant, he immediately implemented overdue reform in the South's U.S. Marshal and U.S. Attorney departments.[40] The culmination of these reforms took place in June, 1875. Attorney General Pierrepont had given specific reform orders to U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals in the South that were vigorously enforced.[40] Pierrepont ran extensive investigations into the conduct of the U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals, exposing fraud and corruption. Pierrepont was fully sustained by President Grant's endorsement of the investigations, reforms, and persons to be removed and replaced from office.[40]
Interior Department (1875)
On October 15, 1875 President Grant's appointed Secretary of Interior
Prosecuted Whiskey Ring (1875–1876)
After the American Civil War, whiskey distillers in St. Louis developed a tax evasion ring that depleted the U.S. Treasury. By 1875, the Whiskey Ring had grown into a nationwide criminal syndicate that included whiskey distillers, brokers, and government officials; making enormous profits from the sale of untaxed whiskey. Also rumored, was that in 1872 the Ring had secretly funded the Republican Presidential campaign. In an effort of reform and to clean up corruption, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Benjamin Bristow, as U.S. Secretary of Treasury in 1874, who immediately discovered millions of dollars were being depleted from the U.S. Treasury.[42] Under orders from President Grant, in May 1875, Sec. Bristow struck hard at the Ring, nationally shutting down distilleries, arresting hundreds involved in the ring having obtained over 350 indictments. The Ring through Bristow's vigorous raids had been effectively shut down. In April 1875, President Grant appointed Pierrepont Attorney General and teamed him up with Bristow to prosecute the Ring and clean up corruption.[43]
During the Summer of 1875, both Bristow and Pierrepont obtained President Grant's order to "let know guilty man escape." During the Fall of 1875, evidence was discovered that Grant's private secretary,
Proposed reforms
Grant suggested other reforms as well, including a proposal that states should offer free public schooling to all children; he also endorsed the Blaine Amendment, which would have forbidden government aid to schools with religious affiliations.[45]
Dismissed or resigned Cabinet reformers
Three of Grant's reform Cabinet members were forced to resign or dismissed by Grant without notice or explanation including
Akerman was later forced to resign by Grant without notice or explanation and replaced by
Postmaster Jewell was abruptly dismissed without notice or explanation after a Cabinet meeting because Grant believed Jewell and Secretary of Treasury
See also
References
- ^ Nevins 1957, p. 367.
- ^ Smith 2001, pp. 468–73.
- ^ a b Corning 1918, pp. 49–54.
- ^ Boutwell 2008, pp. 120–123.
- ^ McFeely 2002, p. 369.
- ^ Trelease 1995.
- ^ Rives 2000.
- ^ PoliticalCorruption.net
- ^ Rhodes 1912, pp. 182–185.
- ^ Smith 2001, p. 585.
- ^ Leonard 1920.
- ^ Salinger 2005, pp. 374–375.
- ^ Nevins 1957, p. 139.
- ^ a b Chicago Daily Tribune (Feb 18, 1883), Marshall Jewell
- ^ New England Historic Genealogical Society, p. 127
- ^ Moody 1933, p. 64.
- ^ Chernow 2017, p. 787.
- ^ Smith 2001, pp. 481–490.
- ^ a b c Simpson 2005, p. Introduction and Acknolledgements xxiii.
- ^ a b Scaturro 2006.
- ^ (1990), Grant Memoirs and Selected Letters pp. 1146, 1147; McFeely (2002), Grant: A Biography, pp. 368–369
- ^ Trelease 1971, ch. 22–25.
- ^ McFeely (2002), Grant: A Biography, pp. 368–369
- ^ Howe (1935), p. 48, 295
- ^ Smith 2001, pp. 587–589.
- ^ Young 1880, p. 126.
- ^ Nevins 1957, p. 710.
- ^ Smith 2001 pp. 587–589.
- ^ a b Ertman, M. M. (2010). Race Treason: The Untold Story of America's Ban on Polygamy.
- ^ "The Mormons Arming and Drilling" (PDF). The New York Times. May 2, 1870. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ "The Fourth In Utah" (PDF). The New York Times. July 6, 1871. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ "Utah's Territorial Governors (1850–1896)". 2011.
- ^ "The Mormon Trials". The Boston Globe. October 30, 1871.
- New York Times. November 22, 1871. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ "Various Presidents on Polygamy". July 5, 2011.
- ^ Carpenter 2001, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Statutes at Large, 42nd Congress, 3rd Session, p. 599
- ^ Statutes at Large, 42nd Congress, 3rd Session, p. 600
- ^ Memormorial of Benjamin Helm Bristow (1897), p.10
- ^ a b c New York Times (June 17, 1875), The Conduct of Southern Marshals and Attorneys
- ^ Pierson 1880, pp.343–345
- ^ Smith (1981), Grant, p. 584
- ^ Smith (2001), Grant, p. 585
- ^ McFeely (1981), Grant A Biography, p. 411
- ^ Crapol 2000, p. 42.
- ^ McFeely, p. 365
Sources
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- Carpenter, Daniel P. (2001). "Chapter Three". The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Reputations, Networks, and Policy Innovation in Executive Agencies, 1862–1928. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 84–85. OCLC 47120319. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ISBN 978-1-59420-487-6.
- Corning, Amos Elwood (1918). Hamilton Fish. New York City: Lamere Publishing Company. pp. 49–54. OCLC 2959737.
- Crapol, Edward P. (2000). James G. Blaine: Architect of Empire. Biographies in American Foreign Policy. Vol. 4. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources. ISBN 978-0-8420-2604-8.
- Howe, George Frederick (1935). Chester A. Arthur A Quarter-Century of Machine Politics. New York: Frederick Unger Publishing Co.
- Leonard, Lewis Alexander (1920). Life of Alphonso Taft. New York City: Hawke Publishing Company. OCLC 60738535. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
Life of Alphonso Taft.
- ISBN 0-393-01372-3.
- OCLC 6889578., Pulitzer prize, but hostile to Grant
- Moody, Robert E. (1933). Dumas Malone (ed.). Dictionary of American Biography Jewell, Marshall. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- OCLC 478495. Retrieved April 11, 2010.(subscription required)
- Pierson, Arthur Tappen (1880). "Zachariah Chandler: An Outline Sketch of his Life and Public Services". Detroit Post and Tribune. pp. 343–345. OCLC 300744189.
- OCLC 3214496. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
- Rhodes, James G. (1906). History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896: vol. 6: 1866–1872. OCLC 765948.
- Rives, Timothy (Fall 2000). "Grant, Babcock, and the Whiskey Ring". Prologue. 32 (3). Retrieved January 18, 2010.
- Simpson, Brooks; Kelsey, Marie Ellen (2005). Ulysses S. Grant: A Bibliography. ISBN 0-313-28176-9.
- OCLC 45387618.
- Salinger, Lawrence M. (2005). Encyclopedia of White-collar & Corporate Crime, Volume 2. ISBN 978-0-7619-3004-4. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
- Scaturro, Frank (October 26, 2006). "The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, 1869–1877". College of St. Scholastica. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
- Trelease, Allen W. (April 1995) [1971]. White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction. OCLC 4194613.