#General Grant

[deadpresidents]

Which President, in your opinion, was the most reluctant to seek the position? Which wound up hating it the most by the end of his term?

I am a strong believer that nobody truly becomes President of the United States "reluctantly". That's not exactly the kind of job that seeks you, especially the modern Presidency.

For a significant slice of American history, many of the people nominated for President acted as if they were being called upon to run when, behind-the-scenes, they were very active in building their campaigns and corralling supporters. Until the 20th Century it was frowned upon to openly run for the Presidency, but almost all of the Presidents wanted the gig.

I'd say that George Washington was probably more reluctant than most of his successors and likely would have preferred retiring to Mount Vernon after the Revolution, but I think he also recognized that he was the guy who needed to be the President that set the precedents. I think Ulysses S. Grant would have been perfectly happy to not be President, but once he was elected in 1868 he also wanted to keep the job. He even tried to run for a third term in 1880.

That 1880 election might have been the one case where the winner -- James Garfield -- genuinely wasn't interested in the Presidency at that point. He had gone to the Republican National Convention to support fellow Ohioan John Sherman (and defeat Grant's hopes for a third term) and gained some major attention after giving a well-received speech placing Sherman's name in nomination. When the candidacies of Sherman and James G. Blaine -- another anti-Grant candidate -- stalled, Garfield became a compromise choice and was eventually nominated on the 36th ballot. Garfield was apparently legitimately shocked by the events leading to him leaving Chicago as the GOP nominee.

By most accounts, William Howard Taft was far more interested in a potential seat on the Supreme Court than becoming President. At heart he was a judge and believed himself to be better suited for the judiciary than the Executive Branch. But Taft turned down three offers by Theodore Roosevelt to be appointed to the Supreme Court (in 1902, 1903, and 1906) because he felt obligated to complete his work as Governor-General of the Philippines and then Secretary of War. But Taft's wife desperately wanted him to become President and by the time of President Roosevelt's third offer of a seat on the Court, Taft was already being talked about as Roosevelt's hand-picked successor in the White House. And, as with all other Presidents, once he had a taste for the job, he didn't want to give it up, running for re-election in 1912 against his former friend, Roosevelt.

Gerald Ford is the only other President who hadn't spent a significant portion of his political career with his eyes on the White House. Ford spent nearly a quarter-century in the House of Representatives and his main ambition was to be Speaker of the House, but Republicans weren't able to win control of the House when Ford was in Congressional leadership positions. But even with Ford being a creature of Congress, he did attempt to put himself forward as a nominee for the Vice Presidency, first in 1960 and then in 1968, and Nixon kicked the tires on picking him as his running mate in 1960. No one wants to be Vice President without seeing it as a potential stepping stone to the Presidency, particularly at that point in history before Vice Presidents were empowered with some real influence within the Administrations they served in.

As for who wound up hating it by the end of their time in office, I think it's safe to say that John Quincy Adams didn't shed too many tears when he was defeated for re-election in 1828. And I'm sure he wouldn't use the word "hate", but nobody can convince me that George W. Bush wasn't thoroughly ready to escape Washington by late-2007. There were times in 2008 when he seemed like he just wanted to hold a snap election like they have in parliamentary systems and go home to Texas. If some Presidential insider published a book that said that Bush asked if he could just give the keys to the White House to Barack Obama in July 2008, I wouldn't be the least bit shocked.

On the other hand, if there were no term limits, Bill Clinton would have been running for President in every election since 1992 (and the crazy thing is that he's still younger than both of the presumptive 2024 nominees). I'm kind of surprised that he didn't make an effort to repeal the 22nd Amendment in the past 20 years. Clinton loved being President and was trying to find something Presidential to do until minutes before his successor was inaugurated in 2001.

[simply-ivanka]

April 9, 1865 -- General Lee surrenders at Appomattox, Virginia.

[mooseonahunt]

I just spent an hour talking a couple people’s ears off about Grant. I think I’m gonna start a separate account to post about him. I love him so much dear god

[popeyetriedtotakeit]

[topsecret132]

me 5 minutes after I said I was gonna kms

౨ৎ˙⋆.˚ ᡣ𐭩

[auroroboros1]

we'll face them with our fire. we'll face them with our guns. we'll face the rebel scum. we'll fight them with our fire. we'll fight them with our guns. we'll fight the traitors scum.

a union marching song i wrote

[melatoninangell]

[katabay]

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A KNIGHT...

the visual inspiration for this was a combination of Frederic William Burton's Meeting on the Turret Stairs and also Bernardo Cavallino's The vision of St. Dominic receiving the Rosary from the Virgin

this was supposed to be just a one off illustration to get the thoughts out of my system, but then I started thinking about medieval politics and warfare and plagues and a castle and home as both a place of refuge, a prison, and a tomb, so perhaps they will end up as ex voto characters as well.

you may say, hey! that rosary looks like it has too many beads! it's a fifteen decade rosary, probably. dominicans are really into marian devotions. it works out.

also. spiral style stair cases. oh boy. it was that unexpectedly more difficult than I originally thought it would be to draw. the more I think about it, the less I understand them, even though I had a million photos of the stairs in front of me while I was drawing it.

⭐ I have a tip jar (ko-fi)!

⭐ and other places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

[mongeese]

Heartwrenching scene of two kids having a deep conversation about depression and daddy issues with rejected romantic advances but one of them is named Yeet Bigley

[kyrup]

all of the glitched name cards from this week’s game changer for your convenience.

(transcripts and timestamps in the alt text)

[deadpresidents]

[Ulysses S.] Grant was a neat smoker. Despite his careless dress, no remnants of cigar ash soiled his uniform though he smoked almost constantly. Onlookers found that rather than appearing stimulated by tobacco, he puffed a Havana with "the listless, absorbed and satisfied air of an opium smoker." Smoking calmed him, which accounts for his using cigars at a faster rate during action than otherwise. He smoked during his meeting with [Confederate General John C.] Pemberton, and again when he rode into captured Vicksburg, leading one Confederate editor to declare that "a little stage effect is admirable in great captains."

Grant leaned slightly forward when he walked, and with a quick step if on business. When not immediately occupied, his sharp blue eyes still surveyed his surroundings constantly. There was even less affectation in his dress than in [Robert E.] Lee's, just a round brimmed hat and a simple private's blouse with his insignia of rank on the shoulders. One observer thought he made a "far less pretentious appearance than many a second lieutenant." If anything, some suspected that his dress was intentionally "a trifle, perhaps, negligée, as a man of his celebrity can very well afford that it should be." Dark brown hair, with now a few slivers of gray showing, crowned a brow that even admirers thought suggested "no unusual apparent capacity." He spoke in clipped sentences using words economically, and those to the point and without flourish, leading a New York correspondent to remark that "Gen. Grant has the substantial without the showy."

-- William C. Davis, on General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War, Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee -- The War They Fought, the Peace They Found (BOOK | KINDLE | AUDIO)

[dearlylostdoe]

[aconflagrationofmyown]

Ok, I’m tagging the two mutuals who might actually laugh with me over this idiocy @butlersxbirdy and @prompted-wordsmith

me: I absolutely take history seriously and don’t do anything stupid with it

also me:

[every-single-day]

Themes of loss explored in The Outsiders 💛

[felassan]

What kind of spirit do you think Felassan waz?

Swag

[kyurochurro]

GOOD AFTERNOON!! TODAYS UNI SKETCH IS : a redraw/study/doodle/whateva you wanna call it of this very dapper image of Picard and Data!! first time drawing Picard so I struggled a lil but otherwise I had so much fun drawing Data! :Pc og pic under the cut!

picard you smoke too tough... your swag too different ...