it would have been better never to have made a sacrifice of blood and treasure to save the Union than to have the democratic party come in power now and sacrifice by the ballot what the bayonet seemed to have accomplished."90 Grant had striven to protect the black community, met regularly with black leaders, and given them unprecedented White House access, making global abolitionism an explicit aim of American foreign policy. In his annual message of December 1871, he applauded emancipation efforts in Brazil, deplored ongoing bondage in Cuba and Puerto Rico, and asked Congress for legislation to forbid Americans from "holding, owning, or dealing in slaves, or being interested in slave property in foreign lands"-a practice that hadn't ceased with emancipation at home.91 Black leaders echoed Grant's view that the merger
( Ron Chernow )
[ Grant ]
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