BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Faces of Discord -- Ulysses Grant

DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Faces of Discord -- Ulysses Grant:

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Description of Pictures: At the end of the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was hailed as a national hero and became a popular candidate for the presidency. Socially reticent and politically aloof, Grant never sought high office, but given his conscientious sense of duty, he would obey the will of the people. On March 4, 1869, he became the eighteenth president. Now, 150 years later, we can look back at aspects of his eight years in office (1869-1877) through a selection of his imagery in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Of special interest is the work and commentary of Thomas Nast (1840-1902), the highly acclaimed political satirist of his era.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FDUSG_190730_009.JPG: At the end of the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was hailed a national hero and became a popular candidate for the presidency. Socially reticent and politically aloof, Grant never sought high office, but given his conscientious sense of duty, he would obey the will of the people. On March 4, 1869, he became the eighteenth president. Now, 150 years later, we can look back at aspects of his eight years in office (1869-1877) through a selection of his imagery in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Of special interest is the work and commentary of Thomas Nast (1840-1902), the highly acclaimed political satirist of his era.
2. FDUSG_190730_014.JPG: Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885 Born Point Pleasant, Ohio When Ulysses S. Grant was elected president in 1868, he was a national figure whose image was widely known. This photograph was taken about 1876, near the end of his second and last term in office. He appears to be confident and relaxed, and noticeably heavier than when he entered the White House in 1869. The photographer may be unknown, but this image is the most ubiquitous likeness of Grant and has adorned the fifty-dollar bill for more than a century. Unidentified photographer, c 1876
3. FDUSG_190730_026.JPG: President Ulysses S. Grant From the start, President Grant had self-doubts about his suitability for the job at hand and felt he lacked "political training." To that end, the loyal trust with which he accorded cabinet members and appointees was oftentimes unwise. Consequently, his administration was rocked by incidents of scandal and fraud. Yet Grant remained personally ethical. Moreover, he was civically responsible, fair-minded, and socially progressive. For instance, more than any other late nineteenth-century president, Grant was committed to advancing the civil rights of African Americans, especially their right to vote. He also fought for a more humane policy toward Native Americans. Although he was criticized for his visionary views in his own day, today they are among the tenets of American society. Alexander Hay Ritchie, after Charles DeForest Fredricks, c 1870-75
4. FDUSG_190730_032.JPG: Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885 Born Point Pleasant, Ohio President Ulysses S. Grant had the good fortune to count one of the nation's leading political cartoonists, Thomas Nast, among his friends. In part, Grant attributed his presidential victory in 1868 "to the pencil of Nast," a staunch supporter of both Grant and the Republican Party. Nast developed a camaraderie with the president and the first family, as this watercolor drawing of Grant might suggest. By contrast, Nast had unleashed all of his satiric talents in criticizing the former administration of President Andrew Johnson for being too lenient toward the unreconstructed former Confederate states. In hindsight, Nast's drawing of Grant has become a caricature of his "armchair" presidency, one in which he relegated too much authority to untrustworthy subordinates, an interpretation that the artist never intended. Thomas Nast, 1872
5. FDUSG_190730_043.JPG: General Grant and His Family In 1867, at the height of Ulysses S. Grant's popularity, portraitist William Cogswell made a painting of the entire family. It soon proved a favorite for such print- makers as John Sartain, who reproduced it in the form of this engraving. Although Grant and his wife Julia Dent Grant (1826–1902) were gaining social recognition in the nation's capital, their four children were considerably less known. They are depicted, left to right, Jesse Root Grant (1858–1934), Ellen Grant (1855–1922), Ulysses S. Grant Jr. (1852–1929), and Frederick Dent Grant (1850–1912). Frederick, who is portrayed in a West Point uniform, graduated in 1871. In later years, he gave his father valuable assistance in overseeing the publication of his book, Personal Memoirs. John Sartain, after William Cogswell, 1868
6. FDUSG_190730_061.JPG: James Fisk Jr., 1835-1872 Born Pownal, Vermont President Grant's eight years in office were unusually plagued by vice and corruption. Two of the first individuals to shake the public's confidence were James Fisk Jr., who is shown in this photograph, and Jay Gould. In September 1869, they schemed to inflate the price of gold and corner the market. At the height of the panic known as "Black Friday," Grant ordered the sale of $4 million of gold coin to stabilize the market. Fisk and Gould, however, had managed to involve one of Grant's in-laws, marring the administration with its first scandal. On January 20, 1872, Harper's Weekly ran a front-page obituary for Fisk, who had been killed by a "former boon companion." It published a scathing profile, deriding him as "an eminence of infamy… The crimes, the vices, which he paraded before the public, they conceal behind a mask of affected decorum and hypocrisy." Unidentified photographer, c 1870
7. FDUSG_190730_069.JPG: William W. Belknap, 1829-1890 Born Newburgh, New York William W. Belknap is most often associated with the corruption that discredited the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant. At the start of the Civil War, Belknap was a junior officer with the Fifteenth Iowa Volunteers and eventually attained the rank of brigadier general. In 1869, President Grant appointed him secretary of war. Seven years later, in 1876, evidence was reported to Congress indicating that Belknap had received more than $24,000 in connection with the appointment of John S. Evans to the trade post at Fort Sill in the Oklahoma Territory. Belknap was impeached and resigned before the end of the Senate trial, which failed to find him guilty by a necessary two-thirds majority. Later, it was discovered that the free-spending Mrs. Belknap had been the primary perpetrator of the conspiracy to purchase the office. Mathew B. Brady, 1870
8. FDUSG_190730_075.JPG: Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885 Born Point Pleasant, Ohio Artist Samuel Bell Waugh painted this portrait of Ulysses S. Grant just days after he became the nation's eighteenth president. Waugh's depiction of Grant in uniform, instead of civilian clothes, was indicative of how most Americans thought of their new president. Whereas Northerners hailed him as a victor and hero, Southerners saw Grant as the Yankee soldier who was most responsible for the Confederate defeat. Samuel Bell Waugh, 1869 Gift of the International Business Machines Corporation
9. FDUSG_190730_096.JPG: The Republic is Not Ungrateful Much to President Grant's advantage, he found a friend and a veritable spokesperson in Thomas Nast, the talented cartoonist for Harper's Weekly. In 1872, a scandal involving Grant and Credit Mobilier came to light. Credit Mobilier was a bogus company that siphoned millions of federal dollars for alleged completion of the nation's transcontinental railway. With his artist's pen, Nast came to Grant's defense, much like the figure of Liberty in this cartoon. Grant's innate honesty and integrity were never questioned. Yet his poor character judgement and staunch loyalty to conniving friends and political cronies left his administration vulnerable to vice and corruption, which sullied his presidency. Thomas Nast, 1872
10. FDUSG_190730_109.JPG: Out of the Ruins In the fall of 1873, an economic downturn precipitated the severe national depression that would last through President Grant's second term. Financial firms on Wall Street began closing, and so did scores of banks that had exhausted their monetary reserves. Grant resisted the appeals of brokers and financers to increase the money supply, and he instead favored a policy of "hard money" backed by gold. Thomas Nast largely supported Grant's sound money policy, as did the national press. In this cartoon, Nast depicts Grant as a chief of police who is helping the figure of Liberty escape from the ruins of Wall Street. Thomas Nast, 1873
11. FDUSG_190730_125.JPG: The Cradle of Liberty Out of Danger Benjamin F. Butler (1818–1893) of Massachusetts was a shrewd lawyer, politician, and former Civil War general, who was relieved of command on several occasions. He had been a frequent target of both the Northern and Southern press, which reveled in castigating his obstinacy and ineptitude as "Butlerism." In 1862, his heavy-handedness as the military governor of New Orleans led to his recall. Later, he was a weak link in General Ulysses S. Grant's grand strategy to end the war when his command was "bottled up" in Bermuda Hundred, Virginia. Yet Butler withstood criticism and controversy. In 1874, while serving as a U.S. congressman, he was the principal proponent of the "inflation bill" to increase the nation's money supply through the printing of greenbacks (paper money not backed by specie). President Grant, intent upon a long-term, sound monetary policy based on the gold standard, vetoed the bill, thus bottling up Butler yet again. Thomas Nast, 1874
12. FDUSG_190730_139.JPG: The Plank -- Hitting the Nail on the Head Committed to the growing trend for free public schools in the United States, President Grant proved to be ahead of his times. It was widely held that public education should incorporate Protestant prayers and basic religious doctrine. Catholics, however, objected and instead lobbied for tax dollars to establish their own private schools. In a speech to Union Army veterans in 1875, Grant clearly stated his position: "Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate." Thomas Nast, 1875
13. FDUSG_190730_160.JPG: The "Third Term" Trap In spite of the controversies of fraud and graft that buffeted Grant's presidency, he remained popular with voters in the North, who were confident in his innate decency. Nevertheless, Grant was weary of his executive duties, and he began looking forward to the end of his second term. Amidst the calls for him to seek an unprecedented third term, there were critics who were calling such an idea "Caesarism." Thomas Nast caricatured Grant's situation in this cartoon. Here, Governor John Hartranft of Pennsylvania lays down his state's resolution against a third term in the form of a plank. It represents his hope to drive voter momentum, which is represented by an elephant, the symbol of the Republican Party. Grant looks on in agreement, and declares, "If that don't fetch the animal, Governor, don't blame me any more." Thomas Nast, 1875
14. FDUSG_190730_181.JPG: The Return of Ulysses Ulysses S. Grant was fifty-five when he left the White House. With no concrete plans for the future, he decided to take a sojourn around the world with his wife, Julia, and young son, Jesse. They would be back in two years, but not before they had visited England and Japan and heard welcoming applause from nearly every country of interest and culture in between. Home again in the fall of 1879, the Grants were celebrated with tokens of esteem, as shown by Thomas Nast in this Harper's Weekly cartoon of October 11, 1879. Nast based his wood engraving on a line from Homer's Odyssey: "The Goddess (Minerva) dispersed the mist, and earth appeared; and much-enduring, modest Ulysses was then glad, rejoicing in his own land." Thomas Nast, 1879
15. FDUSG_190730_192.JPG: Last photograph of Ulysses S. Grant Grant's presidency is generally judged as unsuccessful and blighted by corruption. However, the last period of his life has had a lasting imprint on his reputation and on the history of the war. Grant lost almost all of his wealth in a financial panic in 1884, and to make money he started writing about the war. Writer Samuel Clemens negotiated an advantageous contract for him. Diagnosed with throat cancer, Grant raced the clock to finish the book, dying just after completing it. He is shown here near the end. A huge best-seller, Grant's Memoirs benefited his family, and the book is one of the great works of American literature: the clarity of the crisp, clean prose anticipates modern American writing. It is also an invaluable history of the war that Grant waged so relentlessly. John D. Gilman, 1885
16. FDUSG_191011_001.JPG: At the end of the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was hailed a national hero and became a popular candidate for the presidency. Socially reticent and politically aloof, Grant never sought high office, but given his conscientious sense of duty, he would obey the will of the people. On March 4, 1869, he became the eighteenth president. Now, 150 years later, we can look back at aspects of his eight years in office (1869-1877) through a selection of his imagery in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Of special interest is the work and commentary of Thomas Nast (1840-1902), the highly acclaimed political satirist of his era.
17. FDUSG_191011_009.JPG: Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885 Born Point Pleasant, Ohio When Ulysses S. Grant was elected president in 1868, he was a national figure whose image was widely known. This photograph was taken about 1876, near the end of his second and last term in office. He appears to be confident and relaxed, and noticeably heavier than when he entered the White House in 1869. The photographer may be unknown, but this image is the most ubiquitous likeness of Grant and has adorned the fifty-dollar bill for more than a century. Unidentified photographer, c 1876
18. FDUSG_191011_016.JPG: President Ulysses S. Grant From the start, President Grant had self-doubts about his suitability for the job at hand and felt he lacked "political training." To that end, the loyal trust with which he accorded cabinet members and appointees was oftentimes unwise. Consequently, his administration was rocked by incidents of scandal and fraud. Yet Grant remained personally ethical. Moreover, he was civically responsible, fair-minded, and socially progressive. For instance, more than any other late nineteenth-century president, Grant was committed to advancing the civil rights of African Americans, especially their right to vote. He also fought for a more humane policy toward Native Americans. Although he was criticized for his visionary views in his own day, today they are among the tenets of American society. Alexander Hay Ritchie, after Charles DeForest Fredricks, c 1870-75
19. FDUSG_191011_025.JPG: Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885 Born Point Pleasant, Ohio President Ulysses S. Grant had the good fortune to count one of the nation's leading political cartoonists, Thomas Nast, among his friends. In part, Grant attributed his presidential victory in 1868 "to the pencil of Nast," a staunch supporter of both Grant and the Republican Party. Nast developed a camaraderie with the president and the first family, as this watercolor drawing of Grant might suggest. By contrast, Nast had unleashed all of his satiric talents in criticizing the former administration of President Andrew Johnson for being too lenient toward the unreconstructed former Confederate states. In hindsight, Nast's drawing of Grant has become a caricature of his "armchair" presidency, one in which he relegated too much authority to untrustworthy subordinates, an interpretation that the artist never intended. Thomas Nast, 1872
20. FDUSG_191011_032.JPG: General Grant and His Family In 1867, at the height of Ulysses S. Grant's popularity, portraitist William Cogswell made a painting of the entire family. It soon proved a favorite for such print- makers as John Sartain, who reproduced it in the form of this engraving. Although Grant and his wife Julia Dent Grant (1826–1902) were gaining social recognition in the nation's capital, their four children were considerably less known. They are depicted, left to right, Jesse Root Grant (1858–1934), Ellen Grant (1855–1922), Ulysses S. Grant Jr. (1852–1929), and Frederick Dent Grant (1850–1912). Frederick, who is portrayed in a West Point uniform, graduated in 1871. In later years, he gave his father valuable assistance in overseeing the publication of his book, Personal Memoirs. John Sartain, after William Cogswell, 1868
21. FDUSG_191011_040.JPG: James Fisk Jr., 1835-1872 Born Pownal, Vermont President Grant's eight years in office were unusually plagued by vice and corruption. Two of the first individuals to shake the public's confidence were James Fisk Jr., who is shown in this photograph, and Jay Gould. In September 1869, they schemed to inflate the price of gold and corner the market. At the height of the panic known as "Black Friday," Grant ordered the sale of $4 million of gold coin to stabilize the market. Fisk and Gould, however, had managed to involve one of Grant's in-laws, marring the administration with its first scandal. On January 20, 1872, Harper's Weekly ran a front-page obituary for Fisk, who had been killed by a "former boon companion." It published a scathing profile, deriding him as "an eminence of infamy… The crimes, the vices, which he paraded before the public, they conceal behind a mask of affected decorum and hypocrisy." Unidentified photographer, c 1870
22. FDUSG_191011_047.JPG: William W. Belknap, 1829-1890 Born Newburgh, New York William W. Belknap is most often associated with the corruption that discredited the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant. At the start of the Civil War, Belknap was a junior officer with the Fifteenth Iowa Volunteers and eventually attained the rank of brigadier general. In 1869, President Grant appointed him secretary of war. Seven years later, in 1876, evidence was reported to Congress indicating that Belknap had received more than $24,000 in connection with the appointment of John S. Evans to the trade post at Fort Sill in the Oklahoma Territory. Belknap was impeached and resigned before the end of the Senate trial, which failed to find him guilty by a necessary two-thirds majority. Later, it was discovered that the free-spending Mrs. Belknap had been the primary perpetrator of the conspiracy to purchase the office. Mathew B. Brady, 1870
23. FDUSG_191011_055.JPG: Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885 Born Point Pleasant, Ohio Artist Samuel Bell Waugh painted this portrait of Ulysses S. Grant just days after he became the nation's eighteenth president. Waugh's depiction of Grant in uniform, instead of civilian clothes, was indicative of how most Americans thought of their new president. Whereas Northerners hailed him as a victor and hero, Southerners saw Grant as the Yankee soldier who was most responsible for the Confederate defeat. Samuel Bell Waugh, 1869 Gift of the International Business Machines Corporation
24. FDUSG_191011_065.JPG: The Republic is Not Ungrateful Much to President Grant's advantage, he found a friend and a veritable spokesperson in Thomas Nast, the talented cartoonist for Harper's Weekly. In 1872, a scandal involving Grant and Credit Mobilier came to light. Credit Mobilier was a bogus company that siphoned millions of federal dollars for alleged completion of the nation's transcontinental railway. With his artist's pen, Nast came to Grant's defense, much like the figure of Liberty in this cartoon. Grant's innate honesty and integrity were never questioned. Yet his poor character judgement and staunch loyalty to conniving friends and political cronies left his administration vulnerable to vice and corruption, which sullied his presidency. Thomas Nast, 1872
25. FDUSG_191011_073.JPG: Out of the Ruins In the fall of 1873, an economic downturn precipitated the severe national depression that would last through President Grant's second term. Financial firms on Wall Street began closing, and so did scores of banks that had exhausted their monetary reserves. Grant resisted the appeals of brokers and financers to increase the money supply, and he instead favored a policy of "hard money" backed by gold. Thomas Nast largely supported Grant's sound money policy, as did the national press. In this cartoon, Nast depicts Grant as a chief of police who is helping the figure of Liberty escape from the ruins of Wall Street. Thomas Nast, 1873
26. FDUSG_191011_081.JPG: The Cradle of Liberty Out of Danger Benjamin F. Butler (1818–1893) of Massachusetts was a shrewd lawyer, politician, and former Civil War general, who was relieved of command on several occasions. He had been a frequent target of both the Northern and Southern press, which reveled in castigating his obstinacy and ineptitude as "Butlerism." In 1862, his heavy-handedness as the military governor of New Orleans led to his recall. Later, he was a weak link in General Ulysses S. Grant's grand strategy to end the war when his command was "bottled up" in Bermuda Hundred, Virginia. Yet Butler withstood criticism and controversy. In 1874, while serving as a U.S. congressman, he was the principal proponent of the "inflation bill" to increase the nation's money supply through the printing of greenbacks (paper money not backed by specie). President Grant, intent upon a long-term, sound monetary policy based on the gold standard, vetoed the bill, thus bottling up Butler yet again. Thomas Nast, 1874
27. FDUSG_191011_096.JPG: The Plank -- Hitting the Nail on the Head Committed to the growing trend for free public schools in the United States, President Grant proved to be ahead of his times. It was widely held that public education should incorporate Protestant prayers and basic religious doctrine. Catholics, however, objected and instead lobbied for tax dollars to establish their own private schools. In a speech to Union Army veterans in 1875, Grant clearly stated his position: "Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate." Thomas Nast, 1875
28. FDUSG_191011_116.JPG: The "Third Term" Trap In spite of the controversies of fraud and graft that buffeted Grant's presidency, he remained popular with voters in the North, who were confident in his innate decency. Nevertheless, Grant was weary of his executive duties, and he began looking forward to the end of his second term. Amidst the calls for him to seek an unprecedented third term, there were critics who were calling such an idea "Caesarism." Thomas Nast caricatured Grant's situation in this cartoon. Here, Governor John Hartranft of Pennsylvania lays down his state's resolution against a third term in the form of a plank. It represents his hope to drive voter momentum, which is represented by an elephant, the symbol of the Republican Party. Grant looks on in agreement, and declares, "If that don't fetch the animal, Governor, don't blame me any more." Thomas Nast, 1875
29. FDUSG_191011_133.JPG: The Return of Ulysses Ulysses S. Grant was fifty-five when he left the White House. With no concrete plans for the future, he decided to take a sojourn around the world with his wife, Julia, and young son, Jesse. They would be back in two years, but not before they had visited England and Japan and heard welcoming applause from nearly every country of interest and culture in between. Home again in the fall of 1879, the Grants were celebrated with tokens of esteem, as shown by Thomas Nast in this Harper's Weekly cartoon of October 11, 1879. Nast based his wood engraving on a line from Homer's Odyssey: "The Goddess (Minerva) dispersed the mist, and earth appeared; and much-enduring, modest Ulysses was then glad, rejoicing in his own land." Thomas Nast, 1879
30. FDUSG_191011_150.JPG: Last photograph of Ulysses S. Grant Grant's presidency is generally judged as unsuccessful and blighted by corruption. However, the last period of his life has had a lasting imprint on his reputation and on the history of the war. Grant lost almost all of his wealth in a financial panic in 1884, and to make money he started writing about the war. Writer Samuel Clemens negotiated an advantageous contract for him. Diagnosed with throat cancer, Grant raced the clock to finish the book, dying just after completing it. He is shown here near the end. A huge best-seller, Grant's Memoirs benefited his family, and the book is one of the great works of American literature: the clarity of the crisp, clean prose anticipates modern American writing. It is also an invaluable history of the war that Grant waged so relentlessly. John D. Gilman, 1885
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