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=President Ulysses Grant=

Full name: Hiram Ulysses Grant (April 27, 1822- July 23, 1885). Political Party: Republican. Terms: 2 Terms. March 4, 1869- March 4, 1877. Vice President: Schuyler Colfax (1869-1873); Henry Wilson (1873-1875, died in office); None (1875-1877).

Great war hero Ulysses Grant took office with outstanding support from the citizens he presided over, expected to be one of the best Presidents yet. Through his administration Grant revealed that he was much better of a war general than he was a President. President Grant should receive a ranking of a C for his Presidency, due to the fact that he did not do much at all to strengthen, or worsen our country.

When President Grant took office he faced the daunting task of helping our country through the second half of Reconstruction. To get through it, he decided that he would try and continue instituting the policies that Lincoln had wanted put into place. Eventually, the American people forgot about reconstruction altogether and moved on to other issues. Another one of his goals was to keep peace. He was satisfactory in this goal, mostly keeping the country peaceful, but small things still occurred, like the Ku Klux Klan. Grant also needed to deal with the issue of race and needed to figure out what was going to be done about the different races in society. The passage of the fifteenth amendment was a good solution to this problem, giving all the freedmen the right to vote.

President Grant was very fortunately President when the majorities in almost all of Congress were strongly Republican, the same party of Grant. The Republicans had the majority in both houses through all of Grant's administration except the last two years when the Democrats had the majority in the House of Representatives. The Panic of 1873 showed the greatest conflict between Congress and Grant when they disagreed on what bills to pass to proceed. The Democratic majority in the House proved to be a problem when they couldn't pass any legislation. Other than this though Grant worked fairly well with Congress, and passed many important laws like the Enforcement Acts and the Specie Resumption Act.

The best decision that President Grant made during his administration was the passing of the Fifteenth Amendment. This amendment gave all freedmen the right to vote, finally settling the controversy over racial suffrage. By passing this amendment he became better liked by the colored men in the U.S. and helped with the further integration of blacks into society. Although his Presidency may have been marked by scandals and corruption, this was still a great decision made by Grant. However on a more negative note, the worst decision that Grant made in office was establishing the Peace Policy. Although this was meant to help the Native Americans, in only ended up harming them. He tried to integrate the Native Americans back into society by slowly moving them closer to white civilization, ultimately hoping to grant them citizenship. This plan backfired, because the greedy Americans just as they had done before pushed the Natives even further away. This decision could have ended up better, but wasn't that good of an idea in the first place anyway.

When President Grant left office, he left behind all of the reconstruction he had put in place to stay with the country from then on. He also set a good example for other Presidents to come on a good way of handling corruption and scandals. By upholding his honesty he stayed completely out of these issues which proved a good thing to do. It has also been noted that Grant was a very helpful President towards the African Americans. He granted them the right to vote, a great improvement still working perfectly fine today. Even though he did not have much direct impact on the presidents to come he left much of himself in the American society.

At the end of Grant's final term the country was not very much better or worse off than it had been when he started. He had come in after President Johnson, a terrible President and could have done better things for the country, but did not. With all of his involvement in the American life, he proved to be a much better war general than a President. These reasons along with many others prove that President Grant should receive a ranking of a C for his presidency.

Works Cited: "41st United States Congress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. . "42nd United States Congress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. . "44th United States Congress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. . "American President: Ulysses S. Grant: Domestic Affairs." //Miller Center of Public Affairs//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. . Sunderland, ron. "43rd United States Congress - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. . "Ulysses S. Grant | The White House." //The White House//. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. .