Grant Ulysses S. Grant a Democrat?

Joined
Jan 24, 2017
I have only read recently that Grant was a Democrat prior to the Civil War. This surprised me as he was obviously a Republican when he became President.

The focus on Grant and his politics seems to occur mainly after the war, and appears to rest on his military career.

At what point did Grant change his political allegiances? And why?
 
I have only read recently that Grant was a Democrat prior to the Civil War. This surprised me as he was obviously a Republican when he became President.

The focus on Grant and his politics seems to occur mainly after the war, and appears to rest on his military career.

At what point did Grant change his political allegiances? And why?
That's a good question. I think it could be asked about any of the major commanders. There were very few Republican officers in 1860. Most were Democrats and a few had no real allegiance to any party. Several were affiliated with the Whigs in the old days, but that party had vanished. Many old Whigs became Douglas Democrats, and some voted for Bell.

I think some of them changed political allegiance because of the war. For Grant, from what I understand of him, it began with his support of the war itself. I'm not sure he was very politically oriented until later in the war, when the Democrats became associated with copperheadism.
 
Nobody was a Republican before the ACW. Grand kick-off party that Lincoln &Co threw.
So Grant threw his hat in the ring with the Republican party as part of the war effort?

That's a good question. I think it could be asked about any of the major commanders. There were very few Republican officers in 1860. Most were Democrats and a few had no real allegiance to any party. Several were affiliated with the Whigs in the old days, but that party had vanished. Many old Whigs became Douglas Democrats, and some voted for Bell.

I think some of them changed political allegiance because of the war. For Grant, from what I understand of him, it began with his support of the war itself. I'm not sure he was very politically oriented until later in the war, when the Democrats became associated with copperheadism.
Thanks @Andy Cardinal . I think you just answered my question. I didn't have a sense when reading his memoirs that he was very politically motivated, at least early on in the war.
 
From Meet General Grant by W. E. Woodward, pp. 115-116:

"During these years [1850's] Grant's political opinions were drifting away from the abolitionist ideas of his father and moving toward the pro-slavery, Democratic notions of the Dent family. His habitual indecision in the field of intellectual conceptions kept him from being plainly either one thing or the other. He was not an eager student of large affairs, nor the kind of man who seizes a newspaper and, devouring its contents, talks about it all day. He had horses to talk about, and the doings at the post, and his reminiscences of the Mexican War.
"Yet if we are to place him at all, at this period of his life, we must include him among the Democrats. He voted in only one presidential election. That was in 1856, and his choice for President was James Buchanan, the Democratic nominee - He wrote:
'It was evident to my mind that the election of a Republican President in 1856 meant the secession of all the slave states, and rebellion. Under these circumstances I preferred the success of a candidate whose election would prevent or postpone secession. ... I therefore voted for James Buchanan for President.'"
 
So Grant threw his hat in the ring with the Republican party as part of the war effort?


Thanks @Andy Cardinal . I think you just answered my question. I didn't have a sense when reading his memoirs that he was very politically motivated, at least early on in the war.
The other part of the answer I think is that his biggest political sponsor, Washburn, was a Republican congressman.
 
The other part of the answer I think is that his biggest political sponsor, Washburn, was a Republican congressman.

Less pivotal but perhaps still relevant is that Congressman/ Senator John Sherman, brother of his good friend was a leading Congressional Republican who had almost been appointed Speaker. Instead he goes to the Senate and sits on various important Financial Committees.

So, yes, along with Washburn he knows some of the important Republican players and undoubtedly this influenced him.
 
From Meet General Grant by W. E. Woodward, pp. 115-116:

"During these years [1850's] Grant's political opinions were drifting away from the abolitionist ideas of his father and moving toward the pro-slavery, Democratic notions of the Dent family. His habitual indecision in the field of intellectual conceptions kept him from being plainly either one thing or the other. He was not an eager student of large affairs, nor the kind of man who seizes a newspaper and, devouring its contents, talks about it all day. He had horses to talk about, and the doings at the post, and his reminiscences of the Mexican War.
"Yet if we are to place him at all, at this period of his life, we must include him among the Democrats. He voted in only one presidential election. That was in 1856, and his choice for President was James Buchanan, the Democratic nominee - He wrote:
'It was evident to my mind that the election of a Republican President in 1856 meant the secession of all the slave states, and rebellion. Under these circumstances I preferred the success of a candidate whose election would prevent or postpone secession. ... I therefore voted for James Buchanan for President.'"
Another excellent post @Copperhead-mi which gives further insight into Grant's political thinking prior to the war. Thanks.
 
The other part of the answer I think is that his biggest political sponsor, Washburn, was a Republican congressman.


Grant was neither Republican or Democrat during the war... just a soldier trying to do his job. After the war both the Democrats and Republicans claimed him as their own but the incident that established Grant firmly on the Republican side was President Johnson's removal of Stanton as the Secretary of War and his treatment of Grant when he discovered that Grant did not support Johnson's handling of that affair.
 
but the incident that established Grant firmly on the Republican side was President Johnson's removal of Stanton as the Secretary of War and his treatment of Grant when he discovered that Grant did not support Johnson's handling of that affair.
In late 1865 Grant, by then immensely popular, toured the South at Pres. Andrew Johnson’s request, was greeted with surprising friendliness, and submitted a report recommending a lenient Reconstruction policy. In 1866 he was appointed to the newly established rank of general of the armies of the United States. In 1867 Johnson removed Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and thereby tested the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act, which dictated that removals from office be at the assent of Congress, and in August appointed Grant interim secretary of war. When Congress insisted upon Stanton’s reinstatement, Grant resigned (January 1868), thus infuriating Johnson, who believed that Grant had agreed to remain in office to provoke a court decision.

Johnson’s angry charges brought an open break between the two men and strengthened Grant’s ties to the Republican Party, which led to his nomination for president in 1868. The last line of his letter of acceptance, “Let us have peace,” became the Republican campaign slogan. Grant’s Democratic opponent was Horatio Seymour, former governor of New York. The race was a close one, and Grant’s narrow margin of victory in the popular vote (300,000 ballots) may have been attributable to newly enfranchised black voters. The vote of the electoral college was more one-sided, with Grant garnering 214 votes, compared with 80 for Seymour.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ulysses-S-Grant
 
From Meet General Grant by W. E. Woodward, pp. 115-116:

"During these years [1850's] Grant's political opinions were drifting away from the abolitionist ideas of his father and moving toward the pro-slavery, Democratic notions of the Dent family. His habitual indecision in the field of intellectual conceptions kept him from being plainly either one thing or the other. He was not an eager student of large affairs, nor the kind of man who seizes a newspaper and, devouring its contents, talks about it all day. He had horses to talk about, and the doings at the post, and his reminiscences of the Mexican War.
"Yet if we are to place him at all, at this period of his life, we must include him among the Democrats. He voted in only one presidential election. That was in 1856, and his choice for President was James Buchanan, the Democratic nominee - He wrote:
'It was evident to my mind that the election of a Republican President in 1856 meant the secession of all the slave states, and rebellion. Under these circumstances I preferred the success of a candidate whose election would prevent or postpone secession. ... I therefore voted for James Buchanan for President.'"

I'm not really thrilled with Woodward's assertions, Grant was knowledgeable of and discussed politics prior to the Civil War. I don't think his living in the south affected his views the way Woodward claims either. He heard casual talk of secession that sickened and terrified him while in the south. Grant lays his reasoning for voting Democrat out in the quote at the end. He had no greater concern or motivator to his political activity than that of avoiding the dissolution of the union. He later said he would have voted for Douglas instead of Lincoln if he was eligible for essentially the same reason, to avoid disunion. Grant became a Republican gradually for essentially the same reason, one side was trying to preserve the Union, the other considering peace. Preserving the union (and then re-uniting it) seemed to be his main political motive throughout.

"Whatever may have been my political opinions before, I have but one sentiment now. That is, we have a Government, and laws and a flag, and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now, traitors and patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter, and I trust, the stronger party." -USG to his father Jesse 4/21/61

For the most comprehensive study on Grant and politics Brooks Simpson's book Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and The Politics of War and Reconstruction pretty much covers his political evolution.
 
I agree. As far as I recall Grant was not active politically before the war, but is described by biographers as a great reader, including of newspapers, so I imagine that he was informed. In his earlier military career he was usually posted somewhere far off and unable to vote. The time he voted for Buchanan in 1856 he said that he was voting against Fremont, although he might have been kidding. I think Grant’s humour often gets overlooked.

I would tend to trust @contestedground on Grant’s political evolution, which gathered strength during and after the war.
 
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