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The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant began during the turbulent Reconstruction period following the American Civil War. Grant was elected the 18th President of the United States in 1868 and was re-elected to the office in 1872, serving from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877. Grant was a Republican, and his main supporters were the Radical and Stalwart factions. The United States was at peace with the world throughout the era, and was prosperous until the Panic of 1873, a severe national depression, that dominated Grant's second term.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/The_Great_Republic_By_the_Master_Historians_Vol_III/panicof1_hd.html )〕 Grant bolstered the Executive Branch's enforcement powers by signing into law the Department of Justice and Office of Solicitor General that was implemented to protect the civil rights of African Americans.〔Smith (2001), pp. 544–545〕 Grant expanded federal authority that protected African American civil rights against domestic terrorism in the South.〔Brands (December, 2012), ''Grant takes on the Klans'', American History, p. 44〕 Grant's presidency represented the Civil War values that included "union, freedom and equality."〔("Who's Buried in the History Books?" ) by Sean Wilentz, ''The New York Times'', March 14, 2010〕 Grant's Reconstruction policy, however, was challenged by the complexities of using the U.S. Army to impose democracy and legal equality regardless of the resistance of Democrats in the South.〔Brands, page 425〕 Grant worked hard to ensure the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment that gave black men the right to vote.〔Miller Center (2013), (Impact and Legacy ), viewed on December 19, 2013〕 Grant's notable efforts as President included civil rights, civil service reform, and Indian policy.〔〔Brands, pp. 543-544〕 Grant's foreign policy under Hamilton Fish was successful and improved Anglo-American relations.〔 Grant was opposed by the Liberal faction of the Republican Party, many of them founding fathers of the GOP, who denounced Grant for violating the party's emphasis on fighting corruption.〔McFeely (1981), ''Grant'', pp. 380, 381〕 The Liberals insisted that Reconstruction had been successful, that slavery and secessionism were dead. Liberals demanded that Army troops should be withdrawn from the South so that normal political life could resume. The Liberals nominated long-time Republican spokesman Horace Greeley in 1872, depriving Grant of the intellectual base of the Republican Party. Greeley was quietly supported by the Democrats, but was decisively defeated by Grant. Rather than develop a cadre of trustworthy political advisers, Grant was overconfident in choosing his Cabinet; he relied heavily on former Army associates who had a thin understanding of politics and a weak sense of civilian ethics.〔Donovan (2008), p. 103〕 His presidential reputation was severely damaged by repeated scandals and frauds.〔McFeely Woodward (1974) pp. 147-148.〕 Having struggled to be a self-made man, Grant was extremely loyal to himself and his family, while trusting of close military associates that in turn caused dissension among reformers whom he believed were plotting to overthrow his presidency.〔McFeely (1981), p. 415〕 Grant dismissed three Cabinet members without notice or explanation. Two of his Cabinet secretaries (War and Navy), his personal secretary, and high officials he named to the Treasury department joined federal bribery or tax-evasion syndicates. Corruption charges were rampant in the Department of the Interior in 1874, until Grant appointed a reformer. Grant often defended the culprits, rather than the integrity of government service, while he attacked their accusers.〔Smith, p. 357〕 Middle-class public opinion, a key element in the Republican Party base, turned hostile to Grant.〔Nevins 1936, p. 132.〕 Some scholars, however, maintain that corruption charges were exaggerated during the Grant administration, and that Grant implemented civil service reform and ended the moiety system.〔McFeely-Woodward (1974), pp. 133–134.〕 Grant played a role in thwarting the Gold Ring in 1869 and the prosecution of the Whiskey Ring in 1875.〔Brands, pp. 635-636〕 His Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont and Postmaster General John A. J. Creswell made sweeping reforms in their respected departments, and several of Grant's Cabinet initiated civil service in their own departments. After a false start with weak selections, Grant named to his Cabinet leading reformers including Hamilton Fish, Benjamin Bristow, Alphonso Taft, and Amos T. Akerman. Fish, as Secretary of State, negotiated the Treaty of Washington and was successful at keeping the United States out of trouble with Britain and Spain. Bristow, as Secretary of Treasury, ended the corruption of the Whiskey Ring where distillers and corrupt officials made millions from tax evasion. Taft, a brilliant jurist as Attorney General, successfully negotiated for bipartisan panel to peacefully settle the controversial Election of 1876. Grant and Attorney General Akerman enforced civil rights legislation that protected African Americans and destroyed the Ku Klux Klan. Grant encouraged peaceful Congressional negotiations after the controversial Election of 1876; signed the Electoral Commission Act of 1877; while the Compromise of 1877 ended Reconstruction.〔Smith (2001), ''Grant'', pp. 596–605〕 Economically, Grant was a conservative who favored a hard-money, gold-based, anti-inflationary policy that entailed paying off the large national debt with gold. He reduced governmental spending, decreased the federal work force, and reduced the national debt, while tax revenues increased in the Treasury Department. During his second term in office, the Panic of 1873, caused by rampant railroad speculation, shook the nation's financial institutions; banks failed, prices fell, and unemployment surged. Before the Panic there had been eight years of tremendous industrial growth after the Civil War that fueled lavish money making schemes, personal greed, and national corruption. President Grant's contraction of money supply worsened the panic; the ensuing major U.S. depression that followed lasted for five years causing massive economic damage to the country. The Panic wiped out both the fortunes of business and corruption.〔Nevins (1957) ''Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration Vol. 2'', pp 638–639〕 Southern Reconstruction continued that included escalated sectional violence over the status of freedmen and fractured state party alliances and elections. With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, the West was wide open to expansionism that sometimes was challenged by hostile Native Americans. Grant implemented an innovative peace policy, though not always successful, with Native Americans. Hostilities took place with the Modoc War, the Red River War, and the Great Sioux War that culminated with the famous Battle of Little Bighorn where Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was killed. In 1874, millions of buffalo were being slaughtered to make room for settlers and ranchers. Grant, who favored ranchers land use for domestic cattle, rejected legislation that would have limited the slaughter of the bison. After the fatal Modoc peace commission in 1873, Grant's Native American policy incorporated the military strategies favored by William T. Sherman and Phil Sheridan. Grant gave legislative support to the early suffragette movement. Corruption was rampant in the Department of Indian Affairs under Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano.〔Smith 2001, pp. 536–541, 586–587.〕〔Brown 1970, pp. 264–271.〕〔Pierson 1880, pp. 343–345.〕 However, Grant and Secretary Delano did have success in the establishment of America's first national park, Yellowstone, and the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.〔(Arizona Apache Wars )〕 The Interior Department corruption was cleaned up by Grant's Secretary Zachariah Chandler in 1875. Grant's presidential legacy has suffered due to his heavy-handed use of the U.S. Army to prop up his political allies in southern states. However, since the mid-1990s his presidential reputation has improved as historians emphasize his enforcement of African American civil rights in the South and his Peace policy towards Indians.〔Wilentz (January 25, 2010), (The Return of Ulysses ), pp. 1-2〕 ==Presidency 1869–1877== Grant's presidency has traditionally been viewed by historians as incompetent and full of corruption. An examination of his presidency reveals Grant had both successes and failures during his two terms in office. In recent years historians have elevated his presidential rating because of his support for African American civil rights. He leaned heavily toward the Radical camp and often sided with their Reconstruction policies, signing into law Force Acts to prosecute the Ku Klux Klan. In foreign policy Grant won praise for the Treaty of Washington, settling the Alabama Claims issue with Britain through arbitration. Economically he sided with Eastern bankers and signed the Public Credit Act that paid U.S. debts in gold specie, but was blamed for the severe economic depression that lasted 1873–1877.〔C-SPAN 2009 Historians Presidential Leadership Survey〕 Grant, wary of powerful congressional leaders, was the first President to ask for a line item veto.〔Weisburger (November, 1995), ''The Item And "fight ‘em" Veto'', American Heritage〕 In the century after he left office most historians denounced the Reconstruction policies followed by Grant. More recently, Grant's support for and enforcement of African Americans civil rights has earned him praise from scholars. While graft and corruption existed in the Southern state governments he supported with the Army, many civil rights advances were made for African Americans.〔Etcheson 2009, pp. 236–242.〕 He was vigorous in his enforcement of the 14th and 15th amendments and prosecuted thousands of persons who violated African American civil rights; he used military force to put down political insurrections in Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.〔Trelease 1971, ch. 24–25.〕 The depression of 1873, along with the increasingly unpopular Reconstruction program, weakened his reputation and his party, allowing the resurgent Democrats to gain a majority in the House of Representatives in 1875. His Presidency was inundated with many scandals caused by low standards and carelessness with his political appointees and personal associates. Nepotism, practiced by Grant, was unrestrained with almost forty family members or relatives who financially benefited from government appointments or employment.〔 Grant and Sumner were often at odds with each other on matters of foreign policy and political patronage. Sumner followed his own foreign policy and detested Grant's practice of nepotism in making political appointments. One historian, Mary L. Hinsdale, described the Grant Administration as "a most extraordinary array of departures from the normal course" and a "military" rule, in close connection with a select Republican Senatorial group. In an unsuccessful effort to annex the island country of Santo Domingo, Grant bypassed the State Department by sending his military associate Orville E. Babcock to produce the treaty. Grant disregarded the opinion of Attorney General Ebenezer R. Hoar over the McGarrahan mining claim patents.〔Sumner 1872.〕〔Hinsdale 1911, (p. 207 ).〕 Grant's foreign policy was heavily influenced by the able Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. Grant depended on Fish's advice on domestic issues such as money policy and Reconstruction. His Secretary of Treasury, George Boutwell, was given full charge of national economic policies. In 1874, Grant began a series of appointments that included reformers and qualified statesmen to his Administration, starting with Benjamin Bristow who prosecuted the Whiskey Ring. With the departure of Orville E. Babcock and William W. Belknap from the White House in 1876, the Grant Administration took on a ''civilian'' rather than "military" style.〔Smith 2001, pp. 481, 491.〕〔New York State Legislature 1894.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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