Waxing and waning and waxing–The mutability of History (Today’s NY Times)

Let us grant that Grant was not the best, but……………….After Grant left the presidency in 1877, he was widely hailed as the most famous and admired living American, his alleged transgressions overcome by a fabulously successful two-year world tour. He was still beloved at his death in 1885 ? a reverence embodied by his monumental tomb in Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson.But Grant came in for decades of disgraceful posthumous attacks that tore his reputation into tatters. Around 1900, pro-Confederate Southern historians began rewriting the history of the Civil War and cast Grant as a ?butcher? during the conflict and a corrupt and vindictive tyrant during his presidency. And the conventional wisdom from the left has relied on the bitter comments of snobs like Henry Adams, who slandered Grant as the avatar of the crass, benighted Gilded Age.Though much of the public and even some historians haven?t yet heard the news, the vindication of Ulysses S. Grant is well under way. I expect that before too long Grant will be returned to the standing he deserves ? not only as the military savior of the Union but as one of the great presidents of his era, and possibly one of the greatest in all American history.