Better than any other president, Ulysses Grant recognized the awkward fit of the army in politics. An army can change people's behavior but it can't change people's minds. The armies of George Washington and Andrew Jackson changed the behavior of the British; once the British decided to go home, it didn't much matter what they thought. Grant's army changed the behavior of the rebel South without changing southern minds. And when the fighting ended, it mattered greatly what southerners thought, because they did or would eventually control the politics of their part of the country. The Confederate surrender signaled an end to attempts to leave the Union, but it didn't change southern minds on the issues that had triggered secession and the war. Southerners, the white ones anyway, still thought the federal government had no right to dictate to the states on domestic matters. And white southerners, while recognizing that slavery was done, still believed black people ought to occupy a subordinate place in southern society.
Thank you- my Irish-Catholic grandmother always liked Grant a lot. I remember her telling me , when I was a boy, about how she saw burning crosses in Indy when she was a little girl.
The rule of law is a powerful thing!
Thank you- my Irish-Catholic grandmother always liked Grant a lot. I remember her telling me , when I was a boy, about how she saw burning crosses in Indy when she was a little girl.