In the final weeks of the 1880 campaign, Ulysses S. Grant left
Galena and headed east to stump for the Republican ticket. At
rallies in New England, upstate New York, Connecticut, New Jersey,
and New York City, sometimes several times a day, the reticent
Grant warmed to his role. Sounding a familiar postwar theme, he
repeatedly condemned voter harassment in the South, asserting the
right of "our fellow-citizens of African descent, ... to go to the
polls, even though they are in the minority, and put in their
ballot without being burned out of their homes, and without being
threatened or intimidated." James A. Garfield won a narrow victory
over Major General Winfield S. Hancock and welcomed Grant's advice
on matters ranging from cabinet choices to foreign policy. Rootless
since their White House days, unsatisfied with backwater Galena,
the Grants now decided to settle in New York City and took rooms at
the Fifth Avenue Hotel. In January, 1881, Grant accepted the
presidency of the 1883 World's Fair Commission, charged with
bringing an exposition to New York City. Initial enthusiasm soon
gave way to rancor, as factions split over where to place the fair.
Grant favored Central Park, but public sentiment intervened, and
funding evaporated. By March, Grant resigned. A friend told a
reporter, "Grant and I had a long talk over the matter across the
way in his son's office, and we both arrived at the conclusion that
the people of New-York don't want a World's Fair." Grant's business
interests reflected the international stage he now occupied.
Competing plans for an isthmian canal through Panama, Mexico, and
Nicaragua jockeyed for support, and Grant had his favorite. "The
only feasible route fora canal across from the Atlantic to the
Pacific is by the Nicaragua route. I have been all over the routes
myself, besides having examined all the reports made regarding each
of them carefully, and that is my firm conviction." Grant published
an article championing Nicaragua even as momentum swung behind
Panama. But Grant's attention was drawn more to railroads and to
Mexico. When his friend Matias Romero promoted a new line through
Oaxaca, Grant jumped on board. A speech to American capitalists in
November, 1880, led a few months later to the incorporation of the
Mexican Southern Railroad, with Grant as president. By April, 1881,
he was in Mexico City, where he told lawmakers: "I predict, with
the building of these roads, a development of the country will take
place such as has never been witnessed in any country before. . . .
There is nothing, in my opinion, to stand in the way of Mexican
progress and grandeur, and wealth, but the people themselves." In
June, Grant returned from Mexico with a new charter in hand. But
his mind was on Garfield and Secretary of State James G. Blaine,
two men who had thwarted him at the Republican convention one year
earlier. Grant supported his Stalwart ally, Roscoe Conkling, in a
power struggle with Garfield and Blaine. From New Orleans to New
York City, Grant spoke candidly. "If you want to know what I think
of the manner in which Mr. Conkling has been treated by the
President and his colleagues in the Senate, I will tell you without
any hesitation. I think it is most outrageous." The feud ended
after Garfield was shot on July 2. When he died in September, Grant
wept with the nation. Fitz John Porter had sought restoration to
the army since hisdismissal after the Second Battle of Bull Run.
Grant had previously rebuffed Porter but now reversed course. "I
believe I have heretofore done you an injustice, both in thought
& speach." Taking up a case that divided former commanders now
in Congress, Grant forcefully argued for Porter's vindication.
Grant and wife Julia bought a home just off Fifth Avenue in New
York City. In the summer, he commuted from his seaside cottage at
Long Branch, New Jersey, to his office on Wall Street, where he
greeted a steady stream of admirers and influence-seekers. A silent
partner in the brokerage firm his son Ulysses, Jr., formed with
Ferdinand Ward, Grant left finances in Ward's hands. Surveys for
the Mexican Southern proceeded. Banquets and parties filled many
evenings. The Grants settled into Manhattan society.
General
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