Ulysses S. Grant: Trending quotes (page 5)

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“San Domingo, with a stable government, under which her immense resources can be developed, will give remunerative wages to tens of thousands of laborers not now upon the island. This labor will take advantage of every available means of transportation to abandon the adjacent islands and seek the blessings of freedom and its sequence—each inhabitant receiving the reward of his own labor. Porto Rico and Cuba will have to abolish slavery, as a measure of self-preservation, to retain their laborers.”

Ulysses S. Grant

1870s, Second State of the Union Address (1870)

Freedom

“April 7, 1865. General R. E. Lee, the result of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the C. S. Army known as the Army of Northern Virginia. U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.”

Ulysses S. Grant

Letter to Robert E. Lee (7 April 1865). https://www.facebook.com/SUVCW/posts/783255298389995
1860s

Feeling , Parting

“[A] measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free government to the present day.”

Ulysses S. Grant

About the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution http://www.grantstomb.org/ (30 March 1870).
1870s

“I don't underrate the value of military knowledge, but if men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.”

Ulysses S. Grant

As quoted in A History of Militarism: Romance and Realities of a Profession (1937) by Alfred Vagts, p. 27.

Men , War , Knowledge

“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 on.”

Ulysses S. Grant

Statement to John Hill Brinton, at the start of his Tennessee River Campaign, early 1862, as quoted in Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, Major and Surgeon U.S.V., 1861-1865 (1914) by John Hill Brinton, p. 239.
1860s

Moving On , War , Art

“I can not doubt that the continued maintenance of slavery in Cuba is among the strongest inducements to the continuance of this strife. A terrible wrong is the natural cause of a terrible evil. The abolition of slavery and the introduction of other reforms in the administration of government in Cuba could not fail to advance the restoration of peace and order. It is greatly to be hoped that the present liberal Government of Spain will voluntarily adopt this view.”

Ulysses S. Grant

1870s, Fourth State of the Union Address (1872)

Peace , Hope , Nature , Evil

“Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a public duty.”

Ulysses S. Grant

Endorsement of a letter relating to the Whiskey Ring (29 July 1875).
1870s

Way , Personality

“I thought this would be about the last battle of the war — I sincerely hoped so; and I said further I took it that most of the men in the ranks were small farmers. The whole country had been so raided by the two armies that it was doubtful whether they would be able to put in a crop to carry themselves and their families through the next winter without the aid of the horses they were then riding. The United States did not want them and I would, therefore, instruct the officers I left behind to receive the paroles of his troops to let every man of the Confederate army who claimed to own a horse or mule take the animal to his home. Lee remarked again that this would have a happy effect.”

Ulysses S. Grant

Source: 1880s, Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885), Ch. 67.

Men , War , Family , Hope

“The order was made and sent out, without any reflection, and without thinking of the Jews as a sect or race to themselves, but simply as persons who had successfully, I say successfully instead of persistently because I know there were a plenty within my lines who envied them their success, violated an order, which violation innured greatly to help the rebels.”

Ulysses S. Grant

1860s, Letter to Isaac N. Morris (1868)

Thinking , Success , Help , Envy

“The union of the States of Germany into a form of government similar in many respects to that of the American Union is an event that can not fail to touch deeply the sympathies of the people of the United States. This union has been brought about by the long-continued, persistent efforts of the people, with the deliberate approval of the governments and people of twenty-four of the German States, through their regularly constituted representatives.”

Ulysses S. Grant

Message regarding the unification of Germany http://millercenter.org/president/grant/speeches/message-regarding-unification-of-germany (7 February 1871)
1870s

People , Effort

“In taking leave of this subject for the present I wish to renew the expression of my conviction that the existence of African slavery in Cuba is a principal cause of the lamentable condition of the island. I do not doubt that Congress shares with me the hope that it will soon be made to disappear, and that peace and prosperity may follow its abolition.”

Ulysses S. Grant

1870s, Fifth State of the Union Address (1873)

Peace , Hope

“You always knew that, what this was going to be. Intimate, and ugly. You must've needed to see it close when you decided to come down here.”

Ulysses S. Grant

To Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Lincoln.html (2012).
In fiction, Lincoln (2012)

“I never wanted to get out of a place as much as I did to get out of the presidency.”

Ulysses S. Grant

As quoted in Around the World with General Grant Vol. 2 (1879) by John Russell Young
1870s, Around the World with General Grant (1879)

“Prior to the rebellion the great mass of the people were satisfied to remain near the scenes of their birth. In fact an immense majority of the whole people did not feel secure against coming to want should they move among entire strangers. So much was the country divided into small communities that localized idioms had grown up, so that you could almost tell what section a person was from by hearing him speak… This is all changed now. The war begot a spirit of independence and enterprise. The feeling now is, that a youth must cut loose from his old surroundings to enable him to get up in the world. There is now such a commingling of the people that particular idioms and pronunciation are no longer localized to any great extent; the country has filled up "from the centre all around to the sea"; railroads connect the two oceans and all parts of the interior; maps, nearly perfect, of every part of the country are now furnished the student of geography.”

Ulysses S. Grant

1880s, Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885)

War , People , Youth , World

“The will of the people is the best law.”

Ulysses S. Grant

As quoted in The Lonely Quest: The Evolution of Presidential Leadership (1966) by Robert Rienow, Leona Train Rienow, p. 209.

People , Law

“It is preposterous to suppose that the people of one generation can lay down the best and only rules of government for all who are to come after them, and under unforeseen contingencies.”

Ulysses S. Grant

Source: 1880s, Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885), Ch. 16.

People

“I am aware that this last statement may be disputed and individual testimony perhaps adduced to show that in ante-bellum days the ballot was as untrammelled in the south as in any section of the country; but in the face of any such contradiction I reassert the statement. The shot-gun was not resorted to. Masked men did not ride over the country at night intimidating voters; but there was a firm feeling that a class existed in every State with a sort of divine right to control public affairs. If they could not get this control by one means they must by another. The end justified the means. The coercion, if mild, was complete.”

Ulysses S. Grant

Source: 1880s, Personal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant (1885), Ch. 16.

Men , Feeling , Night , Country

“There is nothing more I should do to it now, and therefore I am not likely to be more ready to go than at this moment.”

Ulysses S. Grant

Note about his Memoirs about a week before he died, as quoted in Famous Last Words (2001) by Alan Bisbort, p. 30.
1880s

“Social equality is not a subject to be legislated upon, nor shall I ask that anything be done to advance the social status of the colored man, except to give him a fair chance to develop what there is good in him, give him access to the schools, and when he travels let him feel assured that his conduct will regulate the treatment and fare he will receive.”

Ulysses S. Grant

1870s, Second Inaugural Address (1873)

School , Color , Travel , Feeling

“Flour shipped from the Mississippi River to Havana can pass by the very entrance to the city on its way to a port in Spain, there pay a duty fixed upon articles to be reexported, transferred to a Spanish vessel and brought back almost to the point of starting, paying a second duty, and still leave a profit over what would be received by direct shipment. All that is produced in Cuba could be produced in Santo Domingo. Being a part of the United States, commerce between the island and mainland would be free. There would be no export duties on her shipments nor import duties on those coming here.”

Ulysses S. Grant

1870s, Eighth State of the Union Address (1876)

Way , Parting