President's Day: U.S. Grant

and a forgotten statue in Brooklyn.

Perhaps the most underrated president in United States history. The abandoned and betrayed project of post Civl War Reconstruction was a disaster for the country. One little-known result was the emergence of the Dunning School or Southern School of History that rose to dominate the university teaching and publishing of history from the 1890s to the 1950s. It was named after William Archibald Dunning, a historian who taught at Columbia University. The Dunning School may be said to have poisoned American history. It favored white supremacy and the "white" experience of slavery and Reconstruction. Another unfortunate result - one of many - was the targeted and intentional slander of the name and reputation of General and President Ulysses S. Grant. Even in my own youth, Grant was portrayed as drunken and corrupt. No good word was reserved for his great service to his country, his attempt for correct the disastrous wrongs of the administration of Andrew Johnson, Grant’s attacks on the newly emerging Ku Klux Klan, his own shock and betrayal by appointees whose corruption rocked his administration, or the devotion to wife and family from which emerged one of the great masterpieces of American literature, The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, published by his devoted friend Mark Twain shortly after Grant’s death in July of 1885. Americans have been sytematically robbed of their authentic history. This is a story far too long and involved for just one post, but it is a personal goal of the author of this blog to contribute a stone or two to the restoration and reconstruction of that history.

Grant on the Mexican American War:
”For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory.”

For today, though … below is a link to an article on a website that gives a fascinating photographic and written history of one of the comparatively forgotten memorials of President Grant. Brooklyn is a great city … FULL of history; the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park — places where Thomas Paine AND Gilbert Vale both walked

For now, if you haven’t yet red Grant’s Memoir, you owe it to yourself. Please dig and uncover for yourself the true story of a great American figure. And enjoy this link:

https://thereconstructionera.com/ulysses-s-grant-in-brooklyn/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIgWtxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHezc7w8TtMsfjl2L8DKUulTxj0t7_hRrVFdGc7uKxE8kX_5OjznGpy_FdA_aem_yaQa4mmvwWKAtllXoznZ3Q

Ulysses Simon Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885).

Grant on the day after completing his Memoirs and the last known photograph of him.