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Ulysses Grant- 18th President
Party: Republican
Term: March 4, 1869 - March 3, 1877
Age at Inauguration: 46
Life Span: April 27, 1822 - July 23, 1885 [63]
Spouse: Julia Dent - Age at Marriage: 26
Vice President: Schuyler Colfax - Henry Wilson

  • Born Hiram Ulysses Grant, his name was mistakenly changed to Ulysses Simpson Grant on his entrance application to West Point
  • He liked the idea of the initials U. S. Grant and never corrected the error
  • Grant smoked an average of twenty cigars a day, and after winning the presidency he received over 10,000 stogies as gifts
  • He tried to sample one from each batch and gave the remainder to friends Presidential Smokers
  • As president he was given a ticket for horse speaeding on Pennsylvania Avenue
  • With little political experience, and elected mainly on his military credentials, he left most of the day to day workings of the government to his cabinet; a collection of friends and party officials who managed to perpetrate fraud and corruption at every level
  • Grant never profited from the corruption and left office virtually penniless
  • After his presidency he penned his memoirs, the first of any president, and netted $50,000 for his manuscript
  • He never saw his work published as he died four days after completing the last draft