American Ulysses by Ronald C. White

Author:Ronald C. White
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 1885-08-16T05:00:00+00:00

As the hearings proceeded, according to his request, Grant began to hear from his comman-ders about incidents of violence against blacks and white Unionists. In response, he issued Gen-eral Orders No. 3 on January 12. He directed commanders in the South to protect Union loyalists and military personnel from prosecution in state or municipal courts. The force of his order was contained in its final sentence: to protect blacks “charged with offenses for which white persons are not prosecuted or punished in the same manner and degree." In his defense of the Freedmen’s Bureau, Trumbull cited Grant’s recent order: “It contains many of the provisions of the bill under consideration.” As Grant sat in on congressional debates on the Freedmen’s Bureau bill, he un-derstood that it would be his task to interpret its meaning and scope to the generals in the South under his command.

Next, Trumbull presented a second, more sweeping civil rights bill: he regarded it as “the most important measure that has been under its consideration since the 13th Amendment.”

It conferred citizenship on “all persons born in the United States.” A further strengthening of the Thirteenth Amendment, the bill empowered Freedmen’s Bureau officials, as well as federal marshals and district attorneys, to bring suits against those persons who would violate the law’s provisions, even to the point of fines and imprisonment. The Senate passed the bill 33 to 12, the

House 111 to 38.

Meanwhile, Grant began to think of building some financial stability for himself and his family. Over the past twenty-one years he had lived on his father-in-law’s property, in a small rented house in Galena, and in multiple makeshift arrangements during four years of war. He had finally emerged from debt in Galena but had little saved or invested for retirement.

At the conclusion of the war, Grant had resolved to live in Philadelphia and travel to Wash-ington by train, which made the trip in five and a half hours. Of course, after only a few weeks he’d realized this arrangement would not work. Ultimately, despite his disinclination to live in the capital, he accepted Henry Halleck’s offer to use his home in the Georgetown Heights area of Washington.

In October, wanting his own residence, he purchased a large, four-story house for $30,000. The building was actually bought for him by Abel Rathbone Corbin, a newspaper editor and financier Grant knew from Missouri. Corbin subsequently transferred the title to Grant, who signed a note promising to pay back the amount over ten years. With the cost of furnishing his Washington house, he anticipated being in debt for years. “I suppose a man out of debt would be unhappy,” he quipped to Charles Ford, his friend and financial adviser. “I never tried the experi-ment myself however.”

Grant’s personal finances changed dramatically in February. Daniel Butterfield, Joe Hooker’s chief of staff at Chattanooga and now a New York businessman, spearheaded an effort to raise money for the celebrated general in chief. He said he was asked everywhere: “How much is Genl. Grant’s pay?” His standard reply: “Not enough to support the position he holds at all.

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