Ulysses S. Grant

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Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822- July 23, 1885), born Hiram Ulysses Grant, was the Commanding General of Union army during the American Civil War and 18th President of the United States.

Sourced

• No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.
  • To General S.B. Buckner, Fort Donelson (February 16, 1862)

• I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into post commanders, the special regulations of the Treasury Department have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied have I been of this that I instructed the commanding officers at Columbus to refuse all permits to Jews to come South, and I have frequently had them expelled from the department, but they come in with their carpet-sacks in spite of all that can be done to prevent it. The Jews seem to be a privileged class that can travel anywhere. They will land at any woodyard on the river and make their way through the country. If not permitted to buy cotton themselves, they will act as agents for someone else, who will be at military post with a Treasury permit to receive cotton and pay for it in Treasury notes which the Jew will buy up at an agreed rate, paying gold.
  • Letter to C. P. Wolcott, Assistant Secretary of War, Washington (December 17, 1862)

• I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.
  • Dispatch to Washington, before Spottsylvania Court House (May 11, 1864)

• Wherever the enemy goes let our troops go also.
  • Dispatch to General Henry W. Halleck from City Point, Virginia (August 1, 1864)

• The war is over — the rebels are our countrymen again.
  • Upon stopping his men from cheering after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House (April 9, 1865)

• Let us have peace.
  • Accepting nomination for presidency (May 29, 1868)

• Laws are to govern all alike--those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.
  • First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1869)

• You can violate the law. The banks may violate the law and be sustained in doing so. But the President of the United States cannot violate the law.
  • from Harper's Weekly, October 11, 1873

• Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a public duty.
  • Endorsement of a letter relating to the Whiskey Ring (July 29, 1875)

• Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the State forever separate.
  • Speech at Des Moines, Iowa (1875)

• Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately you occasionally find men disgrace labor.
  • Speech at Midland International Arbitration Union, Birmingham, England (1877)

• They [the Pilgrim Fathers] fell upon an ungenial climate, where there were nine months of winter and three months of cold weather, and that called out the best energies of the men, and of the women too, to get a mere subsistence out of the soil, with such a climate. In their efforts to do that they cultivated industry and frugality at the same time—which is the real foundation of the greatness of the Pilgrims.
  • Speech at New England Society Dinner (December 22, 1880)

• It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him.

Attributed

• Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.

• I know only two tunes: one of them is 'Yankee Doodle', and the other one isn't.

• I rise only to say that I do not intend to say anything. I thank you for your hearty welcomes and good cheers.

• If I thought this war was to abolish slavery, I would resign my commission and offer my sword to the other side.

• If men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.

• Incompetence is one of the worst forms of corruption!

• My failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent.

• The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving.

• The will of the people is the best law.

• They tell me, my Lord, that your father was a military man.
  • To Arthur Richard Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington

• Water.
  • Supposed last word.

External links

• Works by Ulysses S. Grant at Project Gutenberg

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