A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 7, part 1: Ulysses S. Grant

In Short

This volume brings together the official proclamations, vetoes, and executive communications of Ulysses S. Grant during his two terms as President, documenting the foundational legal and administrative efforts to rebuild the United States following the Civil War. Within its pages, Grant navigates the delicate work of Reconstruction, the readmission of Southern states to Congress, financial stabilization, Indian policy, and delicate foreign relations with nations like Great Britain and Spain. The collection captures a pivotal transition in American history as the Federal Government asserts its authority, modernizes civil service, and establishes international standing. It has lasted as an indispensable primary source for understanding how executive authority actively managed the raw, post-war realities of national reconciliation and government reform.

The Story

The volume opens in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War, positioning Ulysses S. Grant's presidency as the direct response of a grateful nation elevating its primary military hero to executive leadership. The overarching trajectory moves through the complex, decade-long effort to heal a divided republic, restore former Confederate states to the Union, and grant full, free representation in Congress.

At the onset of his administration, Grant addresses internal legal order and international relations. Early proclamations establish dates for citizens in reconstructed states, such as Texas, to vote on new state constitutions. Concurrently, Grant manages post-war foreign relations, asserting national interests in trade, boundary disputes, and diplomatic recognition. He outlines firm positions on international commerce, such as rejecting reciprocal trade treaties with British Provinces that favor foreign producers over domestic interests, while settling long-standing territorial claims, including the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound Agricultural Company disputes.

As his first term unfolds, Grant tackles the domestic challenges of expansion and civil governance. He advocates passionately for the annexation of San Domingo, arguing that its addition would offer security and protection to a island population seeking alignment with American democratic institutions. In Indian policy, Grant moves away from military subjugation toward a framework of protection and assimilation, promoting the collection of tribes onto designated reservations within the Indian Territory to teach self-support and establish legal protections against white encroachment. He simultaneously pushes for structural domestic reforms, securing legislation to establish the nation's first Civil Service Commission to institute open competitive examinations for public office.

The middle of Grant's presidency is marked by economic debates and foreign crises. Grant takes a firm stance against financial instability by vetoing the "inflation bill," refusing to expand irredeemable paper currency and insisting upon the eventual return to specie payments and national debt reduction. Abroad, his administration navigates delicate neutrality during the Franco-Prussian War, issues formal warnings over Spanish actions in Cuba, and oversees complex international arbitrations, including the settlement of the Alabama claims with Great Britain and the resolution of the northwest water boundary under German arbitration.

The final arc of the volume documents the deepening political turbulence surrounding Reconstruction and the limits of federal intervention. Grant responds to domestic violence and armed factions—such as the White Leagues—resisting state authorities in Louisiana, Arkansas, and South Carolina. While deploying federal military forces under strict statutory provisions to safeguard elections and civil rights, Grant repeatedly expresses his reluctance to interfere in local affairs except where constitutional mandates require executive action. The volume concludes with Grant issuing a final call for an extraordinary session of the Senate, ending an eight-year presidency spent balancing fragile civil peace, federal authority, and institutional reform.

How It Unfolds

Rebuilding the Union Grant issues executive orders directing reconstructed Southern states to vote on new constitutions, laying the legal foundation for their readmission to Congress.

Establishing Peace and Foreign Relations The administration resolves long-standing boundary disputes with Great Britain, rejects disadvantageous Canadian trade reciprocity, and navigates international maritime claims.

Advocating Territorial Expansion Grant urges the Senate to ratify a treaty annexing the Republic of San Domingo, arguing it will foster mutual economic prosperity and protect the region from foreign influence.

Reforming the Civil Service Responding to Grant's repeated requests, Congress passes the law authorizing a Civil Service Commission to introduce competitive examinations for federal appointments.

Protecting Civil Rights and Indian Lands The President outlines an Indian reservation policy aimed at training and protection, while using federal authority to safeguard voting rights and suppress armed insurrections in the South.

Vetoing Currency Inflation Grant blocks legislation that would expand paper money, holding firm to a monetaryAn executive's formal papers reveal the unvarnished machinery of a nation rebuilding its constitutional unity, managing global rivalries, and wrestling with the financial strain of rapid expansion.

In Short

This volume collects the official state documents, executive proclamations, veto messages, and congressional communications of President Ulysses S. Grant, covering his eight-year presidency from 1869 to 1877. The collection captures the primary records of Reconstruction, documenting the federal government’s struggle to enforce civil rights, restore southern state governments to the Union, and suppress anti-Black paramilitary violence. Simultaneously, it charts the era's economic volatility, showing Grant’s staunch defense of the gold standard, his resistance to paper money inflation, and his efforts to reform the civil service against entrenched political patronage. Beyond domestic governance, the papers trace an aggressive foreign policy focused on Latin American relations, transatlantic trade negotiations, maritime boundary arbitrations, and Indian treaties. It remains a foundational historical text because it provides raw, unmediated access to the legal logic and daily administrative mechanisms of a nation seeking stability after civil war.

The Story

The document collection opens in 1869 with the United States emerging from the immediate wake of the Civil War, burdened by massive war debts, civil unrest across former Confederate territories, and an unstable monetary system. Grant’s early presidential papers frame his primary mandate: restoring constitutional governance and fiscal credibility. His initial proclamations set down specific instructions for re-admitting Southern states into the Union, requiring citizens to vote directly on new state constitutions, as seen in his directives regarding Texas. In these early months, Grant establishes a tone of national gratitude and reconciliation, calling for national days of Thanksgiving to celebrate peace, agricultural abundance, and the restoration of fraternal intercourse among citizens across all sections of the reunited land.

As the administration advances into the early 1870s, the official communications shift toward the complex realities of international relations and territorial policy. Grant actively lobbies the Senate for the annexation of the Republic of Santo Domingo, arguing that the island’s residents favor joining the United States to secure protection and economic development. Simultaneously, the Executive Department navigates sensitive diplomatic tensions with European and neighboring powers. The administration balances neutrality during the Franco-Prussian War—recognizing the new French Republic while strictly enforcing neutrality laws among German and French immigrants at home—while resolving long-standing disputes with Great Britain over the Alabama claims, the northwest land boundaries, and Atlantic fishing rights.

By mid-term, domestic friction intensifies significantly. The text reveals Grant's increasing reliance on federal authority to manage violent opposition to Reconstruction in the South. When lawlessness and paramilitary groups like the White League disrupt local governments in states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and South Carolina, Grant issues formal executive orders and deploys military detachments. His messages to Congress defend these actions under Title 24 of the Revised Statutes, detailing how federal intervention is required to protect the constitutional voting rights of citizens against force and intimidation.

Concurrently, the volume highlights Grant's intense battles over economic policy. In the wake of financial instability, Congress attempts to expand irredeemable paper currency. Grant responds with a historic, decisive veto message against the "inflation bill," arguing that increasing paper circulation violates true financial principles, party pledges, and national obligations to creditors. He insists on a steady return to specie payments backed by gold, while simultaneously urging Congress to limit profuse land grants to private railway corporations and protect the rights of actual homesteaders on the public domain.

In its final movement, spanning the mid-1870s to 1877, the papers record an administration dealing with structural administrative reforms, foreign trade treaties, and widespread conflict on the Western frontier. Grant oversees the deployment of the "Quaker Peace Commission" and the forced collection of Native American tribes onto designated reservations, even as military reports detail rising hostilities with the Sioux and the defeat at the Little Bighorn. He pushes early civil service reform rules to establish competitive examinations for government posts, signs international metric conventions, and manages the resolution of international arbitrations with Mexico and Spain. The collection concludes in March 1877 with Grant issuing a final proclamation convening an extraordinary session of the Senate, ending two terms defined by relentless constitutional strain, legislative vetoes, and executive assertions of federal power.

How It Unfolds

Reconstructing the Southern States Grant issues presidential proclamations establishing strict procedures for former Confederate states to vote on new state constitutions and rejoin the Union. He outlines precise balloting rules for voters in Texas to ensure constitutional compliance and full federal representation.

Navigating Diplomatic Friction The administration handles delicate international disputes, including the acquisition of Santo Domingo and navigating strict neutrality during the Franco-Prussian War. Grant details negotiations with Great Britain over boundary lines, fishing rights, and the final monetary settlements of the Alabama claims.

Defending Fiscal Discipline Faced with economic volatility, Grant sends a major veto message to Congress rejecting an inflation bill that would increase paper money currency by $100,000,000. He insists on preserving national credit, fulfilling promises to creditors, and systematically returning the country to gold-backed specie payments.

Suppressing Southern Violence As armed groups disrupt elections and local governments in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Arkansas, Grant deploys federal military forces to preserve order. His communications explicitly invoke federal civil rights statutes to protect citizens from intimidation at the ballot box.

Reforming Western and Civil Service Policies Grant outlines policies to collect Native American tribes on reservations, while military reports document escalating conflicts with the Sioux. Concurrently, he approves new Civil Service Commission rules to establish competitive examinations for federal posts and regulates public land grants to railroads.

Concluding the Executive Mandate In his final year, Grant manages administrative budgets, reviews complex international claims with Mexico and Venezuela, and vetoes defective legislative measures. He completes his tenure by issuing a official proclamation convening an extraordinary session of the Senate in March 1877.

The People

Ulysses S. Grant The General-turned-President seeks to stabilize a war-torn nation, protect federal civil rights, and maintain fiscal integrity. He repeatedly contends with congressional opposition, financial panics, and widespread lawlessness in the former Confederacy, ultimately relying on executive orders, veto power, and military deployments to enforce constitutional laws before leaving office in 1877.

Hamilton Fish As Secretary of State, Fish serves as the key administrator framing foreign policy, diplomatic correspondence, and international proclamations. He wants to resolve long-standing maritime and territorial disputes peacefully, working directly alongside Grant to execute treaties with Great Britain, navigate Spanish tensions over Cuba, and establish consular agreements across Europe and Asia.

William P. Kellogg The governor of Louisiana whose legitimacy is violently contested by political opponents and armed groups like the White League. Kellogg wants federal protection to maintain state government operations and enforce judicial rulings, facing constant threats of armed insurrection that force Grant to deploy federal military units to preserve order in New Orleans.

Philip Sheridan The Lieutenant-General dispatched by Grant to observe, report, and potentially assume military command over troubled Southern districts like Louisiana. Sheridan aims to suppress political violence and eliminate lawless paramilitary organizations, proposing severe, direct procedures to stop atrocities, which Grant must carefully balance within the boundaries of peace-time constitutional law.

In Its Own Voice

When reflecting upon the unexpected political trajectory that carried him from military command to the Chief Executive’s chair, Grant underlines his core motives and the political attacks that followed:

"I performed a conscientious duty, without asking promotion or command, and without a revengeful feeling toward any section or individual."

Writing to the Senate to block a financial measure that would expand paper money, Grant articulates his unyielding commitment to established monetary principles:

"The theory, in my belief, is a departure from true principles of finance, national interest, national obligations to creditors, Congressional promises, party pledges (on the part of both political parties), and of personal views and promises made by me in every annual message sent to Congress and in each inaugural address."

In a solemn proclamation issued to the American public, Grant reflects on the overarching duties of a self-governing nation surviving civil conflict:

"It becomes a people thus favored to make acknowledgment to the Supreme Author from whom such blessings flow of their gratitude and their dependence, to render praise and thanksgiving for the same, and devoutly to implore a continuance of God's mercies."

What It's Really About

At its core, this volume is an inquiry into the limits and obligations of federal executive power in a constitutional republic. Through presidential messages, legal proclamations, and legislative vetoes, the text examines how a government must balance civil authority with military intervention when local institutions collapse into lawlessness. It asks whether a free government can protect the fundamental civil and voting rights of newly freed citizens without overstepping constitutional boundaries or infringing upon state sovereignty.

The book also addresses the intersection of fiscal morality and national authority. Grant’s persistent defense of the gold standard and his sharp opposition to currency inflation reflect a core belief that a nation’s sovereign integrity depends upon fulfilling its financial contracts honorably. Furthermore, the documents illuminate the challenges of an expanding empire, contrasting the government’s desire for territorial and commercial growth—such as telegraph line expansion and Dominican annexation—with the tragic realities of Western Indian removal and military conflict. Ultimately, the collection argues that national unity requires both strict legal enforcement and a commitment to fiscal and institutional reform.

Why Read It Today

This collection offers an indispensable, unfiltered look at one of the most critical eras in American governance. For readers interested in political history, constitutional law, or presidential leadership, it provides direct access to primary documents without the filter of secondary interpretation. Reading Grant’s actual state papers allows one to feel the immediate daily burden of a post-war presidency wrestling with civil rights enforcement, economic panics, foreign diplomacy, and institutional corruption.

The volume does present distinct challenges for the modern reader. Its structure consists entirely of official state papers, formal proclamations, routine executive transmittals, and dry financial ledgers, lacking any traditional narrative prose or literary embellishment. The language is dense, legalistic, and laden with 19th-century bureaucratic terminology. Furthermore, modern readers must confront period attitudes toward Native Americans—where federal policy openly sought the forced assimilation and containment of indigenous populations—as well as the harsh realities of Reconstruction-era racial violence documented throughout the official reports.

Despite these formal difficulties, what stays with the reader is the stark clarity and unpretentious directness of Grant's official voice. Whether explaining a complex veto of a financial bill, detailing diplomatic boundary lines, or defending the employment of troops to guard ballot boxes, the documents reveal a Chief Executive attempting to navigate an unprecedented national crisis with legal precision and steady resolve. It remains a powerful historical resource for understanding how modern federal authority was shaped in the furnace of post-Civil War America.