ulysses s grant and mark twain and benjamin ward and mistakes and grant and twain

4. Perry tells us that Grant looked forward to the end of his studies at West Point. Though his class was strong, Grant especially commended the class of 1846, freshmen when he was a senior. The most illustrious of the class of 1846 was the future General George McClellan. Then Perry says, "The class of 1846, which graduated four years after Grant..." (p. 14). Huh? Grant graduated in 1843. Four years? No wonder Perry couldn't explain some of the complexities of the Grant & Ward financial situation (see below).

5. Perry spends some time describing Grant's life as a farmer after he finished his duty in the Mexican-American War. "In early 1858, finally defeated by the mounting bills, Grant quit the farm and went into business with a friend in St. Louis" (p. 27). Ok, I follow. His business then failed, and then he decided "at the age of thirty-eight" to swallow his pride and work for his father in Galena Illinois. Since he was born in April (whether it was the 22nd or 27th, we don't know) 1822, this would have been around the summer of 1860. Fine. Then, Perry says, "It was a humiliating time, but Grant had no choice. In April 1859, the former captain....arrived in Galena from St. Louis (Ibid.). Huh? In April 1859 Grant would have been turning 37. So, depending on when in April they moved to Galena, and whether Grant had a five-day birth or there is a Perry error on the day Grant was born, he was either 36 or 37, but not 38. I guess we have a math-challenged writer and editor. What indeed does an editor do? I could understand it if the editor didn't check all the dates in the book for accuracy, but I am only pointing out the obvious internally-inconsistent facts. Well, maybe if you tell the story accurately you won't end up on Oprah. Maybe that is what Perry is secretly hoping for in his book--a visit to her show. But now that Oprah has distanced herself from James Frey, and now that his reputation is shattered into what we might say a "Million Little Pieces," maybe errors alone won't get Perry on her show. He will have to excel at something else, too.

6. Grant and his wife Julia had retreated to their summer home at Long Branch, NJ on May 30, 1884. The "cottage" was an imposing place, three stories high with an encircling balcony. It provided a place for the former President to relax and write and greet friends. Then Perry says, "He was still, more than a decade after the end of his presidency, Long Branch's 'first citizen'"(p. 52). Huh? Grant left the presidency in March 1877. A decade after he left the presidency Grant would have been dead for nearly two years. So, I can't figure out what Perry is trying to say; in any case, he must have failed his courses in basic arithmetic. I am glad that he became a historian. I don't suppose he ever considered a minor in ring theory.

7. I will stop pointing out errors here, lest anyone think I am critical of Perry's work. But I have to conclude by speaking not so much of an error as in a crucial unclarity. I have been reading historians for years, and one of the "tests" I give them is to see if they can clearly explain money or economic realities which affect their subjects. Most cannot. For that matter, most historians cannot explain clearly, concisely and precisely what they are supposed to be describing. But let's confine my comment to Perry's statements about the financial arrangements regarding Grant's several properties after he left the White House in 1877. Perry explains that after his presidency, he had been showered with a gift of a $16,000 home in Galena, IL, a home given him by the people of Philadelphia (is that the Long Branch "cottage?"), a home on "Eye" street in Washington, D.C., and finally the New York home (on 66th)--given by an old friend, George Childs of Philadelphia. Ok. Well, we don't really know about the Philadelphia or D.C. homes, but Perry goes on to explain that George Childs raised a subscription ($1,000 from each of twenty millionaires) on his behalf for the NY home. He continues: "A portion of the mortgage was paid by the subscription, but, as Grant decided, the remaining money would buy "premium" securities offered by Grant & Ward" (p. xxi).

What does this mean about the New York home? I suppose the $20,000 subscriptions were "gifts" to Grant, to help him buy it, but does how does Perry suggest that he financed the rest of the house purchase? Or, does he think that the 66th St house cost more than $20,000? This question (the cost of NY real estate after 1877) would actually be very interesting to know about, but we are left in obscurity just when we would like clarity. And, we still haven't gotten to the rest of the sentence. For, in the rest of the sentence Perry says that "the remaining money" (WHAT remaining money?) would buy "premium" securities... What is he trying to say? Are we supposing that the house now cost less than $20,000 and that the difference between $20,000 and the cost of the house went into "premium" securities for Grant? Does the rest of the sentence actually mean that Grant himself was buying securities? What, for example, would have been a "premium" security in those days?

I could try to be charitable and suggest what Perry might have meant, but I think I will let him explain it. After all, it is his book, and he is a very mature man (born in 1950). But, since he didn't have much luck subtracting 1843 from 1846 or deciding which day Benjamin Ward left town or which day Grant was born or a number of other annoying details, I surely don't expect him to be able to explain the details of some rather simple economic transactions.

Conclusion

I made an observation about life during my time studying theology--that God doesn't shed all his gifts on any one person but liberally shuffles the deck lest any be able to boast of having too many talents. These essays have shown that Perry will never experience the temptation to make that boast. But, maybe not so surprisingly, I am enjoying his book. To a consideration of other topics in his volume I now turn.

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