The Captain Departs: Ulysses S. Grant's Last Campaign

1. General Grant Becomes an Author

1. General Grant Becomes an Author AFTER LEAVING the White House in 1877, following his two terms as president, General Ulysses S. Grant made a grand tour of the world. He was received as an honored guest by crowned heads and presidents. It was a triumphal and spectacular journey, but it was expensive and funds ran low. His second son, Ulysses, Jr., had made investments for his father, however, the profits of which permitted the general and Mrs. Grant, after a lengthy stay in Europe, to complete their travels by way of India, China, and Japan. They returned to the United States through San Francisco in 1879.1 The Grants were then making their home in Galena, Illinois, but they had acquired tastes which could not well be indulged there, and they felt prosperous enough to move to a more stirring and sophisticated setting. There was a final fling in politics, with Grant's friend, Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, in 1880 leading a group of "Stalwarts" in a hopeless effort to secure his nomination to a third term on the Republican ticket. After its failure, the general and Mrs. Grant decided to move to New York City. There young Ulysses, not long out of Columbia University law school, had become the junior pat·tner of a financier by the name of Ferdinand Ward, whose spectacular and apparently successful operations soon gave him the name of the "Young Napoleon of finance." It was investments with Ward and his associate James D. Fish that had financed the latter part 1 2 THE CAPTAIN DEPARTS of the general's world tour. Ward now proposed a private banking finn under the name of Grant & Ward. Grant and his son contributed their limited resources to the firm, and young Ulysses's father-in-law, Senator Jerome B. Chaffee of Colorado, invested heavily. Other members and connections of the family were drawn in, and the firm seemed for some time to be a fabulous success. In three years it acquired a rating of $15,000,000.2 Grant was never actively engaged in the affairs of this banking and brokerage house. His name was used, and he invested his money, but the business was almost entirely in Ward's hands. Ward made the investments, drew the checks, received the deposits and disposed of them. The company seemed to be making enormous profits, and the general had complete confidence in his young partner. He was relieved from the fear or the reality of poverty that had haunted much of his earlier life. "At last," as his grandson has phrased it, "he could enjoy his comfortable home, filled with the trophies acquired during a successful career in the army, the presidency and during the trip around the world. Also he could now meet on a basis of social equality with the wealthy and socially prominent people who were proud to claim his acquaintance." 3 Early in 1884 the general felt affluent enough to start a round robin subscription toward the Statue of 'Liberty pedestal fund, offering $5,000 on condition that nineteen other prominent men did the same.4 While Grant thought that he was becoming a wealthy man through his partnership with Ward, his active interest lay elsewhere . He had shown himself a warm friend to Mexico after the Civil War, when he had sent a strong force to the border under General Philip Sheridan to lend moral support and suggest possible intervention to the legitimate government of Mexico in its struggle with the French and their puppet emperor , Maximilian. He had met and befriended Matias Romero, the Mexican representative in the United States at the time. Early in 1880 he went to Mexico and renewed his friendship with Romero. He was given a royal welcome and became enthusiastic over the possibilities of development in that country, to the mutual benefit of Mexico and American investors.5 General Grant Becomes an Author 3 After his political career ended, the general became an active propagandist for closer ties with Mexico, and took part in the promotion of railroads to develop the country's resources and link it more closely with the United States. The Mexican Southern Railroad Company was incorporated under the laws of New York State early in 1881 to build a line from Mexico City south. Grant and Romero, with Porfirio Diaz and other Mexican gentlemen , were listed as incorporators, along with Edwin...