In his eighth and final annual message to Congress, Ulysses S.
Grant reminded the nation that it was his "fortune or misfortune,
to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous
political training." The electoral crisis that dominated Grant's
last months in office left little room for political error. On
November 7, 1876, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote,
but Republican Rutherford B. Hayes could claim the presidency by a
single electoral vote if he captured all disputed electors from
Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon. Uncertainty gave
way to deadlock as the crisis deepened. Grant's mail included a
steady trickle of anonymous threats. In late January 1877, Grant
signed a bill creating an electoral commission to end the dispute.
Hayes won all disputed electors and succeeded Grant without
incident.
Out of the White House, without a settled home, the Grants spent
two months visiting family and friends before embarking on their
long-planned European tour. On May 17, Grant left Philadelphia
aboard the steamer "Indiana. "When he arrived at Liverpool, crowds
thronged the docks and streets to give him a hero's welcome, and
Londoners welcomed Grant with similar enthusiasm. In July, the
Grants crossed to Belgium, traveled through Germany, and summered
in the Swiss Alps and the lakes of northern Italy. Back in Great
Britain, they toured Scotland and northern England, then visited
daughter Ellen Grant Sartoris at Warsash, the Sartoris country home
near Southampton.
Grant spent November in Paris, later writing "no American would
stay in Paris if he found himself the only one of his countrymen
there." The Grants wintered in the Mediterranean, sailingdown the
Italian coast to Sicily, where they spent Christmas, then to
Alexandria, and a long trip up the Nile. The party toured the Holy
Land, visited Constantinople and Athens, and spent a month in
Italy. After another month in Paris, the Grants were off to
Holland, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, Austria, and Switzerland,
exploring the Alps again before returning to Paris in September,
1878, to ponder their next move.
Abroad and out of office, Grant freely talked about the war and
his presidency. Several interviews stirred controversy in America
and stoked talk of a third term in 1880, despite Grant's own
protestation: "I never wanted to get out of a place as much as I
did to get out of the Presidency." The Grants had seen Europe. Now
they faced a choice between home and a journey to distant Asia.
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