A Talking Points Record

So how do we explain a historical record of the Grant administration that is so one-sided? Enter history’s prismatic lens. Grant faced newspaper editor Horace Greeley in his 1872 campaign for a second term. Greeley’s supporters in the political elite included most of his newspaper editor colleagues across the nation. Together they slandered and vilified Grant with a venom reserved in modern times for the likes of . . . well you pick your favorite victim of personal destruction politics. The charges Grant’s adversaries trumpeted in that campaign, literally the opposition talking points, come down to us today as history’s assessment of the Grant presidency. The record completely overlooks the fact that Grant won reelection, capturing nearly sixty percent of the popular vote. Despite a national opposition that purchased ink by the barrel, the American people found reason to approve the president’s performance in office.

And so we are left with an imperfect portrait of President Ulysses Simpson Grant. Few who hold presidential office can rightly claim more, though history accords some kinder treatment than others. When it comes to scandal, Grant was a piker by contemporary standards. One wonders what history will record of our current administration. I came away from my research on the Grant presidency convinced the historical record is far more flawed than the substance of his legacy. Some say ‘History is written by the winners.’ In this case history was written by the newspaper editors who supported Horace Greeley in 1872; and lost.

Which brings us to the conclusion of this long running series. In recent weeks we’ve looked at historical controversies surrounding George Custer, Billy The Kid and Ulysses S. Grant. All these controversies owed, at least in part, to flawed historical records. What is our take-away from this for the time in which we live?

Next Week: The Lessons of Our History

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Ride easy,
Paul