deadpresidents

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#Dan Rather #Legends #Journalism #History #Youtube

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"I liked him of course, but he's a good little mama's boy. The sort of boy who was asked to the dance but not to the dinner."

-- Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, on her cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in an interview with Joseph P. Lash, February 2, 1967.

#History #Presidents #First Families #Presidential Families #Alice Roosevelt Longworth #First Daughter #Theodore Roosevelt #TR #President Roosevelt #Franklin D. Roosevelt #FDR #Quotes About Presidents #Quotes #Politics #Political History #Roosevelt Family

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Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at his headquarters in Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June 1864, after losing a disastrous battle to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's forces.

"The hardest part of this General business is the responsibility for the loss of one's men. I can see no other way out of it, however; we've got to keep at them. But it is hard, very hard, to see all these brave fellows killed and wounded. It means aching hearts back home."

#History #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Union Generals #Political History #Politics

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"The entire country has witnessed with deep emotion his prolonged and patient struggle with painful disease, and has watched by his couch of suffering with tearful sympathy...The great heart of the nation that followed him when living with love and pride bows now in sorrow above him dead, tenderly mindful of his virtues, his great patriotic services, and of the loss occasioned by his death."

-- President Grover Cleveland, Proclamation Announcing the Death of former President Ulysses S. Grant, July 23, 1885

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Grant #Grover Cleveland #President Cleveland #Cleveland Administration #Presidential History #Quotes by Presidents #Quotes About Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Presidency #Civil War #Civil War Generals #Civil War History #Death of Ulysses S. Grant

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"I cannot spare this man; he fights."

-- President Abraham Lincoln, on General Ulysses S. Grant

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Abraham Lincoln #President Lincoln #Presidential History #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Military History #Military Leaders #Quotes About Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Politics #Political History #Grant #Lincoln

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"I then began to ask them if they knew what he drank, what brand of whiskey he used, telling them seriously that I wished they could find out...for if it made fighting generals like Grant, I should like to get some of it for distribution."

-- President Abraham Lincoln, on what he told a group of Congressmen who tried to warn Lincoln about rumors that Ulysses S. Grant drank too much alcohol

#History #Civil War #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Presidents #Presidential History #Abraham Lincoln #President Lincoln #Lincoln #Grant #Quotes About Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Military History #Military Leaders #Politics #Political History

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"Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign opens, I wish to express, in this way, my entire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your plan I neither know or seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any constraints or restraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster, or the capture of our men in great numbers, shall be avoided, I know these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would be mine. If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And now with a brave Army, and a just cause, may God sustain you."

-- President Abraham Lincoln, message to General Ulysses S. Grant, April 30, 1864

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Abraham Lincoln #President Lincoln #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Military History #Military Leaders #Presidential History #Quotes About Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Presidents on Presidents

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"Well, I hardly know what to think of him. He's the quietest little fellow you ever saw...He makes the least fuss of any man you ever saw. I believe two or three times he has been in this room a minute or so before I knew he was here. It's about so all around. The only evidence that you have that he's in any place is that he makes things git! Wherever he is, things move!"

-- President Abraham Lincoln, in response to William Stoddard's question about what he thought of General Ulysses S. Grant

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Abraham Lincoln #President Lincoln #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Presidential History #Quotes About Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Presidential Quotes #Lincoln #Grant

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"The honest, simple-hearted soldier had not added prestige to the Presidential office. He himself knew that he had failed...that he ought never to have been made President. He combined great gifts with great mediocrity."

-- Woodrow Wilson, on Ulysses S. Grant, 1902

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Woodrow Wilson #President Wilson #Presidential History #Presidential Quotes #Quotes About Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Military Leaders #Politics #Political History #Grant Administration #Grant #Presidency

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[Ulysses S.] Grant was a neat smoker. Despite his careless dress, no remnants of cigar ash soiled his uniform though he smoked almost constantly. Onlookers found that rather than appearing stimulated by tobacco, he puffed a Havana with "the listless, absorbed and satisfied air of an opium smoker." Smoking calmed him, which accounts for his using cigars at a faster rate during action than otherwise. He smoked during his meeting with [Confederate General John C.] Pemberton, and again when he rode into captured Vicksburg, leading one Confederate editor to declare that "a little stage effect is admirable in great captains."

Grant leaned slightly forward when he walked, and with a quick step if on business. When not immediately occupied, his sharp blue eyes still surveyed his surroundings constantly. There was even less affectation in his dress than in [Robert E.] Lee's, just a round brimmed hat and a simple private's blouse with his insignia of rank on the shoulders. One observer thought he made a "far less pretentious appearance than many a second lieutenant." If anything, some suspected that his dress was intentionally "a trifle, perhaps, negligée, as a man of his celebrity can very well afford that it should be." Dark brown hair, with now a few slivers of gray showing, crowned a brow that even admirers thought suggested "no unusual apparent capacity." He spoke in clipped sentences using words economically, and those to the point and without flourish, leading a New York correspondent to remark that "Gen. Grant has the substantial without the showy."

-- William C. Davis, on General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War, Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee -- The War They Fought, the Peace They Found (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Presidential Personalities #Presidential Characteristics #Presidential History #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Quotes About Presidents #William C. Davis #Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

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"Ulysses Simpson Grant's period in office seems to prove the theory that we can coast along for eight years without a President...Grant's period as President was one of the low points in our history...I don't think Grant knew very much about what the President's job was except that he was Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. That was the thing, I think, that impressed him more than anything, and he was pretty naïve or ignorant about everything else...He wasn't even a Chief Executive; he was another sleepwalker whose Administration was even more crooked than Warren Harding's, if that's possible."

-- President Harry S. Truman, on Ulysses S. Grant

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Grant Administration #Presidential History #Presidency #Quotes About Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Presidential Quotes #Presidential Criticism #Military History #Military Leaders #Civil War #Civil Was History #Civil War Generals #Union Generals

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"Grant had come out of the war the greatest of all. It is true that the rebels were on their last legs, and that the Southern ports were pretty effectually blockaded, and that Grant was furnished with all the men that were needed or could be spared after he took command of the Army of the Potomac. But Grant helped more than any one else to bring about this condition. His great victories at Donelson, Vicksburg, and Missionary Ridge all contributed to Appomattox...Grant has treated me badly; but he was the right man in the right place during the war, and no matter what his faults were or are, the whole world can never write him down -- remember that."

-- President Andrew Johnson, on Ulysses S. Grant, in a letter to his private secretary, Major Benjamin C. Truman, August 3, 1868

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Grant #Andrew Johnson #President Johnson #Presidential History #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Military History #Military Leaders #Quotes About Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Presidential Quotes #Presidential Rivals #Presidential Relationships

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"You know very well, sir, for you were familiar with my views while I was President, what my estimate of [Ulysses S.] Grant was, and I don't know anything that has since occurred that has caused me to change my mind the slightest. I know Grant thoroughly. I had ample opportunity to study him when I was President, and I am convinced he is the greatest farce that was ever thrust upon a people. Why, the little fellow -- excuse me for using the expression, but I can't help pitying him -- the little fellow has nothing in him. He hasn't a single idea. He has no policy, no conception of what the country requires. He doesn't understand the philosophy of a single great question, and is completely lost in trying to understand his situation. He is mendacious, cunning and treacherous. He lied to me flagrantly, by God, and I convicted him by my whole Cabinet; but that even would have been tolerable were it the only instance, but it was not. He lied on many other occasions.

I tell you, sir, Grant is nothing more than a bundle of petty spites, jealousies and resentments. And yet they say Grant is a second Washington. Only think of it, when you compare him with Washington or Jefferson where is he? Why he is so small you must put your finger on him. He, a little upstart, a coward, physically and intellectually, to be compared to George Washington! Why, it makes me laugh. I have more pity for the man than contempt, for I have no spite against him. But I fear for the country when such a man is likened to the father of his country. Why, just look at the inaugural of Washington. He speaks about his fear and trembling in accepting the Presidency, even after all his experience and success. But this little fellow Grant, an upstart, a mere accident of the war, a creature without the ability to comprehend the philosophy of a single great question, says in his inaugural, 'I know the responsibility is great, but I accept it without fear.' Is that like Washington or Jefferson? Pshaw! It's monstrous to think of.

Grant, I tell you, sir has no ideas, no policy. Why, Washington considered that a man's greatness was measured by his morality, by the standard of his soul. And I have always considered that the more soul a man had, the more developed the soul or intellect within him, the more Godlike he became. But, sir, Grant has nothing. Physically and mentally and morally he is a nonentity. Why, sir, his soul is so small that you could put it within the periphery of a hazel nutshell and it might float about for a thousands years without knocking against the walls of the shell. That's the size of his soul.

Just look at the man sitting at a Cabinet council. He has no idea, no policy, no standard, no creed, not faith. How can he guide the people? How can he impress any great improvements or moral ideas upon the nation? He has no object to look forward to, no leading aim to draw the people towards any particular end. He sits there with his Cabinet. One member has bought him a house in Philadelphia, another has given him $65,000, another has given him a carriage, and so on. It is degrading to the office of President of the United States to have such a man there.

They talk about his generalship. Well, he was a mere incident of the war. Men and arms were supplied in abundance, and his forces were so massive that they simply crushed out the rebellion. It would have been done had Grant never been born. Therefore he was a mere incident. But the little fellow has come to think he is somebody really. I can't help pitying him when I think how well I know him and what an infinitesimal creature he really is."

-- Former President Andrew Johnson, delivering a scathing attack on President Ulysses S. Grant, shortly after Johnson left the White House, during an interview with a correspondent from the New York Herald, June 27, 1869

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Grant Administration #Andrew Johnson #President Johnson #Politics #Political History #Political Rivals #Quotes by Presidents #Quotes about Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Military History #Military Leaders #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Leaders #Presidential History #Presidency #Presidential Relationships #Presidential Rivalries #Grant

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I just noticed that if you look at the background of the photos of Ulysses S. Grant and James Garfield that were in my last post, you can tell that they must have been taken in either the same room or using the same studio backdrop. I just spent about five minutes trying to quickly figure out when they were taken exactly to see if they came from Mathew Brady's studio or were taken somewhere in the White House, but I couldn't find a definitive answer so I'll have to do more digging. I don't know why, but it's just a cool little thing to notice.

#History #Ulysses S. Grant #President Grant #General Grant #James Garfield #President Garfield

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"He has done more than any other President to degrade the character of Cabinet officers by choosing them on the model of the military staff, because of their pleasant personal relation to him and not because of their national reputation and the public needs...His imperturbability is amazing. I am in doubt whether to call it greatness of stupidity."

-- Then-Congressman James Garfield, on President Ulysses S. Grant and the scandals engulfing several of Grant's Cabinet members and advisers, 1874

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #President Grant #General Grant #Grant Administration #Politics #Political History #Presidency #Cabinet of Ulysses S. Grant #Presidential History #Presidential Quotes #Quotes by Presidents #Quotes about Presidents #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Union Generals

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"General Grant is a copious worker and fighter, but a very meager writer and telegrapher...[He] doesn't worry and bother me. He isn't shrieking for reinforcements all the time. He takes what troops we can safely give him...and does the best he can with what he has got...[He is] a very determined little fellow."

-- President Abraham Lincoln, praising General Ulysses S. Grant, especially when compared with Lincoln's frustration for the previous commanding Generals of the Union Army during the Civil War, 1864

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #General Grant #President Grant #Abraham Lincoln #President Lincoln #Presidential History #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Union Generals #Military History #Military Leaders #Quotes by Presidents #Quotes About Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Presidential Quotes

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"[Ulysses S.] Grant is the first general I've had! He's a general...I'll tell you what I mean. You know how it's been with all the rest [of Lincoln's previous commanding generals]. As soon as I put a man in command of the army, he'd come to me with a plan of campaign and about as much as say, 'Now, I don't believe I can do it, but if you say so I'll try it on'; and so put the responsibility of success or failure on me. They all wanted me to be the general. Now it isn't so with Grant. He hasn't told me what his plans are. I don't know, and I don't want to know. I'm glad to find a man who can go ahead without me."

-- President Abraham Lincoln, in response to William Stoddard's questions about what kind of General he expected Ulysses S. Grant would be.

#History #Presidents #Ulysses S. Grant #President Grant #General Grant #Abraham Lincoln #President Lincoln #Civil War #Civil War History #Civil War Generals #Military History #Military Leaders #Politics #Presidential Quotes #Quotes About Presidents #Presidents on Presidents #Quotes by Presidents #Political History #Presidential History #Grant #Lincoln