Hiram Ulysses
Simpson Grant (1822-1885) may not have been the worst president in U.S.
history, but both his administrations set a standard of corruption that would
be hard to beat. When he was asked to
run for president in 1868, he was initially very doubtful . . . and he probably
should have gone with his gut reaction.
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| Grant's presidency was a (whiskey) barrel-full of scandal. |
While
personally honest, his tenure as president was rife with corruption. Both of his vice presidents and members of
his cabinet were implicated in a variety of scandals. This gave Grant an incentive to find
something to divert attention away from the problems. His scapegoat of choice was the Catholic
school question.
It was during
his second term, 1873 to 1876, that matters came to a head. A split in the Catholic vote had ensured
Grant’s reelection in 1872. Reforming Republicans
had become disappointed with his administration’s refusal to consider civil
service reform, free trade, and an end to the Reconstruction that was hampering
efforts to heal the country after the Civil War.
Convinced that
to support Grant was to be in favor of corruption in government, reformers
separated and formed a third party, the Liberal Republicans. Seeing the opportunity to topple Grant,
August Belmont, Sr. (1813-1890), the Democratic Party’s National Chairman,
brokered a deal with the new party. If
the Liberal Republicans would nominate a “fusion candidate” acceptable to both
Democrats and reformers, Belmont would endorse their slate.
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| Charles Francis Adams, Sr. |
Belmont fully
expected the Liberal Republicans would nominate Charles Francis Adams, Sr.
(1807-1886), the highly qualified son of John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), president from 1825 to 1829,
and grandson of John Adams (1735-1826), president from 1797 to 1801. Instead, torn by internal dissension, the new
party nominated newspaper journalist Horace Greeley, an anti-Catholic “fit neither
to lead a party nor govern a nation” who had attacked the Democratic Party as a
group of “slave whippers,” “traitors,” and “Copperheads,” that is, Northern
sympathizers of the Confederacy.[1]
Despite his
disgust, Belmont kept his word and maneuvered the Democratic Party into
endorsing Greeley and his running mate, Benjamin Gratz[2]
Brown (1826-1885). Outraged, the
“Straight Democrats” repudiated their Party’s endorsement and nominated Charles
O’Conor[3]
(1804-1884), the first Catholic candidate for the U.S. presidency.
Nauseated by
Greeley, most Catholics either stayed home or forced themselves to vote for
Grant. Evidently believing he had kept
his word sufficiently by endorsing the Liberal Republican candidates, Belmont
voted for O’Conor, an old friend. Grant
won the presidency with the largest margin in over half a century.
A Catholic Diversion
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| Grant's Wilderness Campaign was a slaughterhouse for both sides. |
Grant had been
on the fringes of the Know-Nothing movement before the war. His tactic of attrition in the Wilderness
Campaign had called forth harsh criticisms from the Catholic bishops,
especially in light of the fact that many of the soldiers slaughtered were
Catholic. Nevertheless, he had managed
to avoid overt expressions of anti-Catholicism.
Now, however,
he needed something to divert public attention away from his scandal-ridden
administration. Even though he was fully
aware of the dangers of mixing politics and religion, and it was the Catholic
vote that had gotten him his second term, his chosen stalking horse was the
Catholic school question.
Typical of Grant’s
new focus was a speech he made in late October 1875 in Des Moines, Iowa, before
a group of veterans. The audience
included General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891), whose Catholic
sympathies were well known, especially since his mother and wife were of that
faith.
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| Religious freedom guaranteed to all except Mormons and Catholics. |
Grant declared
that no government funds should ever be given to “sectarian schools,” and that
aid to parochial schools would destroy the public school system. He capped his remarks on education by
predicting a future war to abolish Catholicism as the Civil War had abolished
slavery:
“If we are to have another contest in the near future of our
national existence, I predict the dividing line will not be the Mason’s and
Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side and
superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.”[4]
Grant
requested that the Congress adopt a Constitutional amendment that would require
each state to establish a free public school system as a state monopoly. All schools would be completely secular. The law would prohibit all religious teaching
in schools. No “sectarian schools” would
receive financial aid in any form. He
also requested legislation to remove the tax-exempt status of religious
institutions.
Blaine, then a
Representative from Maine, introduced an amendment to the Constitution that
would prohibit aid in any form for any school or other institution under the
control of a religious organization. It
passed the House, but died in the Senate.
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