Another Re-Ranked President of the United States

Ulysses S. Grant took office after the disaster of Andrew Johnson.

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his Vice President took office.  Johnson was the biggest mistake in a choice of V.P. ever.

The reason why Johnson had been chosen as Lincoln’s running mate in 1864 was because he had been the only Southerner to remain in Congress when the other states seceded to form the confederacy.   To reward Johnson,  Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln’s first term Vice President was replaced by  him.

Johnson was not what he seemed.   He did not support the Union, he was not against slavery.   Johnson hated the Plantocracy.   He saw the Confederacy as led by the Plantocracy.  So he was against them.

Taking office after Lincoln’s death in April 1865 he was impeached for his attempts to thwart reconstruction.  Ulysses S. Grant had been the winning General in the Civil War and came to power in 1868.

 As a soldier, he supported amnesty for former Confederates and signed the Amnesty Act of 1872.

He decided to limit the number of Federal troops stationed in the South,  having only enough to protect Southern Freedmen and suppress the Ku Klux Klan.

Grant was focused on the condition  of African Americans and native Indian tribes and pushed forward many advances in civil and human rights.

In 1869 and again in 1871, Grant signed bills promoting black voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders. He pushed for the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution which gave African-Americans the vote.  He pushed through the Ku Klux Klan Act, which empowered the President “to arrest and break up disguised night marauders.”

Grant demanded that former slaves be “possessed of the civil rights which citizenship should carry with it.”

Grant was the first President to sign a congressional civil rights act which entitled equal treatment in public accommodations and jury selection.

Further, he strove to provide justice to Native Americans.  This was a sharp reversal of what had  been government.

Grant tried  to preserve Native American lands from encroachment by the westward advance of pioneers.

How come no one knows this?

During the administration of President Grant there were many scandals, there was a great deal of corruption. These events have been used to obliterate all positive acts done by Grant.   These Scandals have clouded the important strides made in civil rights.

I am sure most Americans reading this item are shocked and are racing to Wikipedia to find out if what I’ve posted is true, because this might be the first time they are being made aware of this.

Ulysses S. Grant has had such a bad review that of all the Presidents, he was ranked 28th in a field of 29 in 1949.

His contributions have begun to be appreciated and his ranking has continued to advance so that he rose to 18th in a field of 42.