Grant by Ron Chernow
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EnglishVoice Age
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North American (General) North American (US Mid-Atlantic)Transcript
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Grant by Ron Chernow! Now, even as other Civil War generals rushed to publish their memoirs, flaunting their conquests and cashing in on their celebrity ulysses. S Grant refused to trumpet his accomplishments in print. The son of an incorrigible small town braggart, the unassuming general, and two time President harbored a lifelong aversion to boasting, he was content to march to his grave and dignified silence, letting his extraordinary wartime record speak for itself. Then, at the close of 1883, fate dealt him a series of progressively more savage blows that shattered this high minded resolve. Returning to his Manhattan Townhouse on Christmas Eve Grant 61, pivoted to hand the driver a holiday tip when he slipped on the icy pavement and crashed to the ground, tearing a thigh muscle, and possibly fracturing his hip. Until then a robust man. He crumpled over in excruciating pain, and was hoisted up the steps by servants through anxious winter weeks he remained bedridden or hobbled about on crutches. Before long his discomfort intensified with the agonizing onset of pleurisy, coupled with severe rheumatism that crept up his legs, making it difficult for him to negotiate the familiar rooms. Still worse lay in store. Several years earlier, granted entered into a promising partnership, christened Grant and Ward with 29 year old Ferdinand Ward, touted as the young napoleon of finance, thanks to his colleagues. Financial wizardry Grant seemed to coast on a tide of easy riches, fancying himself a newly minted millionaire. Then, one morning in early May, 1884, he awoke to discover that ward had manufactured the profits from thin air. The whole scheme was a colossal fraud, and he was ruined, along with friends and family members who had entrusted their life savings to the firm. Abruptly, Grant was thrust back into his early years of hardship at lonely frontier garrisons, on his unprofitable farm in ST louis, and at his father's leather goods emporium in Galena Illinois, places where he was branded an economic failure.