Susan in NC’s Reviews > Grant > Status Update

“ The general who had impressed Abraham Lincoln and vanquished Robert E. Lee was powerless to defend himself before the infinite wiles of a shameless young trickster. As Mark Twain later remarked, “It was the unimpeachable credit and respectability of [Grant’s] name that enabled [Fish and Ward] to swindle the public. They could not have done it on their own reputations.””

“ Grant’s complacency was shocking. He seemed to think it perfectly normal that gigantic sums of money should fall from the sky without any effort on his part, even though family and friends had invested their life savings with Grant & Ward on the basis of his involvement.”

“ Ferdinand Ward operated what would later be termed a Ponzi scheme, paying off old investors with money from new ones. Violating every principle of sound finance, he piled up staggering debt, using the same securities as collateral for multiple loans. All the while, Grant acted as his unwitting dupe.”

“Ward sized up Grant as a “child in business matters” who would never be able to uncover his deceptions.42 The firm paid Grant $2,000 monthly for living expenses and Ward funneled extra money to him as needed. Grant associates who invested with Ward walked away with dazzling profits.”

“At bottom, Grant’s problem with Arthur, as with Garfield, was that he couldn’t relinquish his old hold on Washington or accept his diminished authority. The man who had felt so powerless in his early years had acquired a taste for power and refused to quit the high-stakes game of politics.”

“ EVEN AS HE CIRCUMNAVIGATED the globe, Grant had worried about resurgent southern Democrats back home, ex-Confederates who had recaptured control of every state in the region and threatened to undo everything he had accomplished. “It looks to me that unless the North rallies by 1880 the Government will be in the hands of those who tried so hard fourteen—seventeen—years ago to destroy it,” he wrote.“

“Hanging over Grant’s trip was the vexed question of whether he should chance a bid for a third term upon returning home…The wandering Ulysses deflected questions about a third term, answering “that he knew what the Presidency was, and had had all he wanted.”“

“ Many countries that Grant visited levied onerous taxes on their subjects to service massive debt and maintain standing armies, giving him a fresh appreciation of republican government in America. “The fact is we are the most progressive, freest and richest people on earth, but don’t know it or appreciate it. Foreigners see this much plainer than we do.””

“..Grant admitted to being homesick and Julia had wearied of this vagabond life. Still, the indefatigable Grant had a lengthy list of places he wanted to see.There was also the bizarre circumstance that he possessed no true American home, making him feel like a stateless, latter-day Flying Dutchman…For this reason, he decided to extend the trip until the following year.”

“The trip would flower into a royal procession continually lengthened until it spanned two years and four months. Grant’s extraordinary reception by potentates, prime ministers, and moguls would testify to what a giant figure he had become in the world’s imagination... The quintessence of the American spirit, he would walk through other lands in his matter-of-fact style, a plainspoken, democratic figure.”