dual personalities

Today we remember Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States, who died on this day in 1885 at age 63. (I have blogged previously about cousin Lyss here and here.)

I admit that I am a big fan of Ulysses. He was a great general, a military genius and a President whose civil rights record could put to shame those of some modern politicians who like to talk the talk. He was a devoted husband and a good father. Furthermore, he was a really good writer, arguably the best of the Presidents in that regard.

You might want to add this to your summer reading list.

As I have mentioned before, the act of writing his memoirs (without help or ghost writers or even a secretary) in order to provide for his nearly destitute family while dying of throat cancer was heroic with a capital “H”. He died a few days after completing them.

In the end, the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant was published to great acclaim by his friend Mark Twain, and Grant’s widow Julia received about $450,000.

General Grant National Monument, known as “Grant’s Tomb”

Millions of people viewed his New York City funeral procession in 1885 and attended Grant’s Tomb 1897 Manhattan dedication. And that wasn’t on television.

Let us toast him tonight with his own “perfect speech,” which he used time and again beginning in 1865:

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