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Book: Grant
Quotes of Book: Grant

Ron Chernow _ Grant
He has no desire to rise by the fall of others; no glorying over another's abasement;"
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
Grant explained to Porter his aversion to profanities, saying "swearing helps to rouse a man's anger; and when a man flies into a passion his adversary who keeps cool always gets the better of him."50
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
to arm and exasperate the negroes in the South."75 Some Washington observers floated scenarios of a constitutional showdown in which Johnson would deploy Grant and the military to silence Congress. Suddenly Grant's political tendencies became of more than theoretical interest. Ben Butler, now a Radical Republican, wondered privately whether "Grant can be trusted to disobey positive orders of his chief? When the hour of peril comes, shall we not be
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
Returning to his Manhattan town house on Christmas Eve, Grant, sixty-one, pivoted to hand the driver a holiday tip when he slipped on the icy pavement and crashed to the ground, tearing a thigh muscle and possibly fracturing his hip. Until then a robust man, he crumpled over in excruciating pain and was hoisted up the steps by servants. Through anxious winter weeks, he remained bedridden or hobbled about on crutches. Before long, his discomfort intensified with the agonizing onset of pleurisy, coupled with severe rheumatism that crept up his legs, making it difficult for him to negotiate the familiar rooms.
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
He cleverly assumed that he was addressing loyal people and made common cause with them: I have come among you, not as an enemy, but as your friend and fellow-citizen, not to injure or annoy you, but to respect the rights, and to defend and enforce the rights of all loyal citizens. An enemy, in rebellion against our common government, has taken possession of, and planted its guns upon the soil of Kentucky and fired upon our flag . . . He is moving upon your city. I am here to defend you against this enemy and to assert and maintain the authority and sovereignty of your Government and mine.5 For the first time,
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
Like her youngest son, Julia administered stern lectures on republican virtue. Before supper, two noblewomen stopped by to school her in palace etiquette. "Mrs. Grant," one said, "I hope you will not feel fatigued. Our Queen always receives standing." Julia replied breezily, "Oh, I am sure I will not feel the fatigue. You must remember I too have received for the last eight years and always standing."32 Julia was at pains to remind the two women that they were dealing with American royalty. The
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
Julia would gladly have stayed for one more term and had no qualms about scrapping George Washington's precedent. "Oh, Ulys! was that kind to me?" she protested. "Was it just to me?" "Well," he replied, "I do not want to be here another four years. I do not think I could stand it." Rather than feel sympathy for her husband's plight as a profoundly overburdened president, Julia chose to feel "deeply injured.
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
While drinking almost never interfered with his official duties, it haunted his career and trailed him everywhere, an infuriating, ever-present ghost he could not shake. It influenced how people perceived him and deserves close attention. As with so many problems in his life, Grant managed to attain mastery over alcohol in the long haul, a feat as impressive as any of his wartime victories.
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
In 1870 he oversaw creation of the Justice Department, its first duty to bring thousands of anti-Klan indictments. By 1872 the monster had been slain, although its spirit resurfaced as the nation retreated from Reconstruction's lofty aims. Grant presided over the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave blacks the right to vote, and landmark civil rights legislation, including the 1875 act outlawing racial discrimination in public accommodations.
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
Frederick Douglass paired Grant with Lincoln as the two people who had done most to secure African American advances:
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation." With an unaccustomed rhetorical flourish, he affirmed that in the near future "the dividing line will not be Mason & Dixons but between patriotism, & intelligence on the one side & superstition, ambition & ignorance on the other."75 He wound up with an eloquent appeal for separating church and state: "Encourage free schools and resolve that not one dollar of money appropriated to their support no matter how raised, shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school . . . Leave the matter of religion to the family circle, the church & the private school support{ed} entirely by private contribution. Keep the church and state forever separate."76
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Ron Chernow _ Grant
When Grant read this, he was outraged at the shocking suggestion that he had subverted justice. He handed the letter to Bristow with a passionate admonition scrawled across it: "Let no guilty man escape if it can be avoided-Be specially vigilant-or instruct those engaged in the prosecutions of fraud to be-against all who insinuate that they have high influence . . . to protect them.
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