[USA] - 18th President of the USA Ulysses S. Grant - Part 2

Ulysses S. Grant	Birth: 27 April 1822
	Died: 23 July 1885
	Party: Republican
	Presidency: 1869 – 1877
	Vice President: Schuyler Colfax, Henry Wilson
	Nickname: Uncle Sam

 

● The Pacific Railroad Act and the Transcontinental Railroad

The Pacific Railroad Act chartered in 1862 established two companies the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific railroad company to found a transcontinental railroad.

The Union Pacific Railroad company laid tracks from Omaha towards the west while Central Pacific Railroad Company started to from Sacramento and established railroads towards the east.

 

 

This was sort of a competition between both companies as the completion of the transcontinental railroad would be in between from where both companies have started.

While Chinese immigrants took a huge part in the construction of the railroads in the east, Civil War veterans and Irish immigrants took a huge part in the east.

 

 

On 10th May, 1869, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific finally crosses roads and as a symbolic day, a golden spike was planted to celebrate the first Transcontinental Railroad of the United States of America. 

 

 

● The Gilded Age

The Civil War surely devastated the Southern part of the United States of America. Already, before the Civil War most of the industrialization and capital took place in the North.

However, as the war swept through the South which already lacked the infrastructure, the southern part of the United States would face vicious economic difficulties.

 

 

Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the Sea would even devastate the economy of Atlanta for almost 20 years. Industrialists and capitalists found this as an opportunity and establish infrastructure in the south.

However, among those were corrupt business men often referred as ‘carpet-baggers’ which was named after the carpet suitcases that these men would carry.

 

 

Also, men like Boss Tweed would form the ‘Tweed Ring’ in New York that was a political private group that took advantage of taxation of immigrants.

Entrepreneurs such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie would also emerge during these days.

Although it was a start of a great economic bloom, people would refer to these people as ‘robber barons’ believing that the system favored the wealthy and powerful. Mark Twain named this period the ‘Gilded Age’.

 

 

● Black Friday – Not the Black Friday we are longing for

These days, Black Friday refer to the Friday a week before Thanksgiving where big discounts are offered.

However, the ‘Black’ is often used to refer to a ‘disasterous’ events such as the Black Friday of Grant’s administration and Black Tuesday which was the start of the Great Depression.

 

 

Ulysses S. Grant was a introvert and he wasn’t corrupt himself but he had trouble in keeping those close to him.

‘Robber baron’ James Fisk and Jay Gould bribed president Grant’s brother-in-law Abel Corbin to retain government’s gold sales to the market.

James Fisk and Jay Gould were planning on controlling the gold supply as they secretly gathered gold to later get a marginal profit out of it.

 

 

They needed to keep the federal government’s intervention so they bribed Corbin. When Ulysses S. Grant noted such incident, he ordered the Secretary of Treasury George Boutwell to put four million dollars’ worth of gold out of the federal reserve.

The federal government’s release of four million dollars’ worth of gold took place on 24th September 1869 and spoiled Gould and Fisk’s grand plan.

However, it plundered the gold price in the market as well causing a nationwide financial panic. This would be known as Black Friday.

 

 

● Reconstruction & Federal control

As an effort to breakout from the Black Friday incident, Ulysses. S. Grant would continue on the Reconstruction of the union that Andrew Johnson has handed over.

The Ku Klux Klan and other violent mobs would constantly oppress the freed African-Americans and any of those that were against the political stance that the Confederate States used to have.

Ulysses S. Grant would put the Force Act of 1870 and the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 that would grant the federal government authority to intervene with such gangsters and even to declare martial law.

 

 

● The Credit Mobilier Scandal 

Although the transcontinental railroad itself was a success, its success was spoiled by the Credit Mobilier Scandal. Almost 3 billion dollars of federal investments were involved in the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

Union Pacific stockholders secretly established another company named the Credit Mobilier of America which was used to embezzle federal funds.

 

 

Over 30 politicians were ‘accused’ to be involved as no charges were officially made against them for taking bribes from the Union Pacific Railroad company, being involved in the embezzlement or trying to induce others in the embezzlement.

Among the ‘accused’ politicians were vice president Schuyler Colfax and representative James Abram Garfield who would later become the 20th president of the United States of America.

 

 

● The Panic of 1873

Jay Cooke & Company was a bank that invested in the Treasury of the United States federal government and the Northern Pacific Railroad.

However, Jay Cooke & Company constantly face difficulties to incidents such as plundering gold price due to the Black Friday incident and the poor sales of the Northern Pacific Railroad bonds.

Operations of Jay Cooke & Company were seized and bankruptcy was commenced.

 

 

A series of bank runs would occur and the stock market would collapse and lead to the Panic of 1873. Millions of people were forced for unemployment.

Along with the endless series of scandals (although surprisingly, the president wasn’t involved in any) people would riot in major cities such as Baltimore and New York only to be repressed by the National Guard.  

 

 

● More scandal outbreaks

William Richardson succeeds the Secretary of Treasury George Boutwell in 1873. While the nation was suffering the 1873 economic panic, the William Richardson scandal outbreaks that would provoke the public even more.

Richardson cut an illegal deal for his friend John D. Sanborn as he appointed Sanborn an agent in collecting overdue tax. The deal was Sanborn could keep half of the tax that he collects from overdue tax. Richardson and Sanborn both would resign responsible for this scandal.

 

 

Benjamin Bristow who became the next Secretary of Treasury discovers that the federal government embezzled the collected liquor tax among themselves with the distillers and liquor distributors.

These constant scandals would provoke the public in riots that were occurring due to the Panic of 1873 and the government would forcefully repress them.

 

 

Another scandal by the Secretary of War William Belknap emerged in 1876 as William Belknap took advantage of his position and receive bribery from businessmen operating in Native American reservations.

He quickly resigned before major investigations by the congress could take place. Ulysses S. Grant inevitably had to explain himself to the Congress that “Failures have been errors of judgement, not of intent.”