Two of my favorite Ulysses S Grant stories that accentuate that wild ride point:
As he was on his way to the grave, sick and slowly dying, he wrote his memoirs in a vain hope to save his family from poverty after his death. The company he signed with was ripping him off, and it wasn't going to matter, but his great admirer Mark "Mother Fucking" Twain stepped in and published it for him with a MUCH better deal.
He allowed Grant's last act to be saving his family from the same poverty he got them into after being swindled multiple times.
Grant actually started sucking at business really young. When he was a boy, he and his father saw a horse little boy Grant wanted (he loved horses) with a price of $25. His father thought it wasn't worth it, so they walked away, but Ulysses wouldn't stop pestering his dad.
Finally, his dad says, "Fine. You can go to the merchant and offer him 20. If he doesn't take that, you can offer 23. Only if he doesn't take that can you buy the horse for 25."
Ulysses turns around, walks straight back to the merchant, and says, "My dad says I can offer you 20, and if you don't take that, I can offer you 23, and if you don't take that I can offer you 25."
They settled on $25.
Grant was actually briefly a slave owner for about a year. This was after the Mexican-American War, and his family was reduced to selling firewood to make ends meet, entirely impoverished. His father-in-law, patriarch of a major slave family, gave him a slave.
Now, Ulysses wasn't very ideologically driven at this point. He was from an abolitionist family, but he married into a slave-holding one. And the slave he received was worth probably $1,000 at market, a life changing amount for his family at the time.
But even though he didn't yet have a mind for politics, he couldn't square the act of owning another person. It wasn't a political stance. It just didn't compute. He took the man to the court house and freed him roughly a year after taking ownership. A bold move considering that money would have definitely risen his family from poverty.
Grant definitely didn't succeed at everything he tried, but as a man, I have found no other president and few other figures as compelling as him.
DukeDoozy t1_iy7k57n wrote
Reply to comment by yousorename in TIL that Ulysses Grant was made commander of all Union armies at 41 and President at 46 by IllustriousAct28
Two of my favorite Ulysses S Grant stories that accentuate that wild ride point:
He allowed Grant's last act to be saving his family from the same poverty he got them into after being swindled multiple times.
Finally, his dad says, "Fine. You can go to the merchant and offer him 20. If he doesn't take that, you can offer 23. Only if he doesn't take that can you buy the horse for 25."
Ulysses turns around, walks straight back to the merchant, and says, "My dad says I can offer you 20, and if you don't take that, I can offer you 23, and if you don't take that I can offer you 25."
They settled on $25.
Now, Ulysses wasn't very ideologically driven at this point. He was from an abolitionist family, but he married into a slave-holding one. And the slave he received was worth probably $1,000 at market, a life changing amount for his family at the time.
But even though he didn't yet have a mind for politics, he couldn't square the act of owning another person. It wasn't a political stance. It just didn't compute. He took the man to the court house and freed him roughly a year after taking ownership. A bold move considering that money would have definitely risen his family from poverty.
Grant definitely didn't succeed at everything he tried, but as a man, I have found no other president and few other figures as compelling as him.