Ulysses S Grant on the possibility of another Civil War

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

[brush]

1. How true.

[MustLoveBeagles]

2. He called it

[Aviation Pro]

3. The Civil War never ended

……

[paleotn]

15. And after all this time, we may let each other go semi-amicably.

A realignment that will make the partition of India look like child's play, but in my mind, I don't see a way around it. Every cycle, it gets worse and worse.. We simply can't live together anymore. I'm to the point now that if Oklahoma or South Dakota got nuked, burned to the ground and rendered uninhabitable, I'd shrug, figure most of the wankers deserved it and go about my business like nothing ever happened. I cannot stop hating those people.

[Hekate]

19. Took me ages to figure that out, and it was a shock when I did. Comes of not being raised in the old Confederacy.

In any case, by the time I saw this US Grant quote I knew it for certain.

[enigmania]

4. How prescient.

[pansypoo53219]

5. i recommend his memoir's, tho i bet mark twain edited out the good stuff.

ken burn's didn't mention the telegraph corps. grant made the land seige on lee way more exciting.

[LymphocyteLover]

20. I read his memoirs. Fascinating accounts of the various wars and battles

he was in and not so much on his presidency.

[highplainsdem]

6. I checked Snopes - was glad to find he really said that - and in fact he said more that DUers should read:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/grant-next-civil-war/

I do not bring into this assemblage politics, certainly not partisan politics, but it is a fair subject for soldiers in their deliberations to consider what may be necessary to secure the prize for which they battled in a republic like ours. Where the citizen is sovereign and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign — the people — should possess intelligence.

The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other.

Now in this centennial year of our national existence, I believe it a good time to begin the work of strengthening the foundation of the house commenced by our patriotic forefathers one hundred years ago, at Concord and Lexington. Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more perfect security of free thought, free speech, and free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion.

Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money appropriated to their support, no matter how raised, shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school. Resolve that the State or Nation, or both combined, shall furnish to every child growing up in the land, the means of acquiring a good common-school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistic tenets. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate. With these safeguards, I believe the battles which created the Army of the Tennessee will not have been fought in vain.

[TheRickles]

7. Wow, that really hits home. Thanks for posting it.

[mountain grammy]

9. He is probably our most underrated president

And general and American. I never get tired of reading more about Grant. That last paragraph! Yes!

Thanks for posting.

[HUAJIAO]

10. Wow!

[Hekate]

24. Grant was a wise, wise man. Imagine free "common schools" -- Imagine keeping church & state forever separate

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. We were traveling below the Mason Dixon right after the election. Grant's quote is

spot on!

[paleotn]

17. Condolences.

I'm from there. Lived a big chunk of my life there. Won't go back. Not until things change drastically. I'm not holding my breath.

[FailureToCommunicate]

23. We know, and met, many great, right thinking folks in the Southern states. However,

there was a LOT of celebrating around us in the days after Nov 5th. At one fast food restaurant , a group was handing out celebratory "Trump Cake" to everybody in the place. Trump signs and banners everywhere we went.
We were visiting certain Civil War sites where my ancestors fought, on the Union side. It was eerie to ponder what has changed, or not, in 160 years.

[NNadir]

11. I have always regarded Grant as the second greatest President of the 19th century.

He was certainly an essential President, for it is doubtful the country would have survived with anyone else in office in the period which he served.

Much of the malignity directed at is presidency by historians was generated by the racists who have lingered monstrously in the US psyche and who are ascendant once again.

Trump will not survive his second term; he is already suffering from dementia but I'm fairly well convinced our country and its Constitution will survive this second festival of ignorance and oligarchy.

[wendyb-NC]

12. Sounds right

[Evolve Dammit]

13. Great post

[3catwoman3]

14. Damn - he hit that nail square on the head.

I do not remember this ever being taught in my American history class.

[raging moderate]

16. The autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant is stunningly brilliant.

And he wrote it while he was dying of painful cancer, feelingly increasingly worse and worse. He forced himself to keep working so his wife and children would have enough money after his death. He died only a few weeks after it was finished. And he was so perceptive! He noticed that the rank and file Confederate soldiers obviously knew how to do the work they were assigned, even more than the self-important aristocratic officers riding horses and blowing trumpets among them, and that the TOOLS given to these workers were obviously too inferior to allow these workers to do their best work. Grant knew this because he came from a family that did its own work, bought its own tools, and took care of its own physical needs. And he noticed what good workers the Black people were who came over to the Union side to fight for freedom. And he tried to be fair and humane whenever possible. And he had managed to overcome an early drinking problem through arduous self-discipline and love of his wife and family. He was a wonderful man!

[Picaro]

18. He was spot on

[Skittles]

22. yes he was

very much so

[LymphocyteLover]

21. Seems like we are having that Civil War right now!